The Light Chasers
by kajoqixuye
Summary: [Sequel to The Darkness Hunter] After the events involving the vampiraga Sephiroth, Roxas White has come to resent Sora Parker. But when he gets involved with a search for a figure from Sora's past, he'll have to accept things that he doesn't want to in order to find and rescue someone who could turn out to be more important to him than he thought. SoraxKairi, Roxasx?
1. Roxas's Interview

**Greetings, fanfiction community!**

**I suggested it and you supported it, so here it is: the sequel to my first story, The Darkness Hunter. It's good to see that so many people were eager at my suggestion, so I hope you'll enjoy what I've got lined up for you!**

**This story, like The Darkness Hunter, is narrated in first-person, but, this time, from a few different viewpoints, which will alternate throughout the course of the story. (I will indicate who's speaking with their name in all caps as a header.) We'll see Sora's POV again, but a couple of others as well...**

**Well, here's Chapter One. It's pretty long, but I did have a lot to say. Enjoy!**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

ROXAS

Red eyes. Everywhere, the red eyes. Boring into me, full of relentless cruelty. Freezing me in place. And then…nothing.

I sat up in bed and put my face in my hands. It didn't even need to be a dream to unsettle me; the memory was bad enough. It was why I had quit my job as a doorman. The night that that tall stranger had come…it had changed everything. Granted, it had less of an effect on me than it had several weeks ago, but, every so often, the memory would surge back in full force, terrifying me all over again.

I still didn't know what to make of it, over three months after it had happened. Though I did have my suspicions…

I scowled as my mind turned towards the person I had been trying not to think about for the past couple of months. _Sora._ One of the people who lived in the apartment building where I used to work. Sora and I had never gotten along like bread and butter, but we had been friendly towards each other—that is, until this whole whatever-it-was. A couple of weeks after the…incident, Sora had tracked me down, and offered to explain to me what had happened, professing to know all about it. I had been skeptical, but agreed to let him speak. Boy, was _that_ a mistake. He had claimed that I had been hypnotized by a vampire—or some other term similar to vampire—that had terrorized him and his friends at the time. As if he was Professor Van Helsing or something. And if that weren't enough, he went on to claim that there were supernatural beings of all sorts all around us, and that he often dealt with them in his investigative services.

By then, I had had enough. I told him to get out and not try to trick me after I had been traumatized. He had insisted that he was telling the truth, but I managed to get him out. I didn't know what his deal was—if this was all part of some trick he had played on me, or if he was just plain crazy. I suspected the former at first; we had recently had a disagreement, and that might have been his way of getting back at me. I thought it was a bit much for a prank, but, then again, maybe Sora was the type of person who thought that was funny. I didn't know him all that well.

Then came the letters. And the phone calls. I don't know how Sora got my personal information, but he relentlessly abused it, constantly trying to contact me and convince me that he had been telling the truth. At first, I tried to ignore them, hanging up when he called or throwing out letters that had his return address. Then, he tried getting some of his friends to contact me. I did know his friends, though; I had seen them come and go at the apartment building, so when a guy introducing himself as James Gorsch called me, I knew who I was speaking to. Still, I had held on to the hope that he wasn't as crazy as Sora, and could perhaps provide an explanation for his friend's behavior.

I was sorely disappointed. Whatever problem Sora had, his friends had, too. I had hung up, and refused to take calls from any number I didn't recognize. But they persisted, leaving emails, voice messages, and even trying to catch me as I left my house in the morning. I nearly had a nervous breakdown. Finally, I told Sora to leave me alone (though in slightly more explicit terms), or I would report his harassment to the police. Thankfully, he seemed to get the message, and I got no more communications from people trying to convince me of the existence of vampires.

But it only left me more confused than ever. Now I had no idea who the strange man with the red eyes had been or what the hell was wrong with Sora. Was it just that he had completely lost his mind, and had managed to find companions with the same situation? It seemed unlikely; they had seemed pretty sound when I had seen them. Especially Riku Taiko. He was always calm and collected, and, given that he was one of the best investigators in the area, I doubted that he knew about Sora's predicament.

Still, the eyes continued to haunt me. I was afraid of mentioning them to anyone; they might think I was crazy, too. Even my roommate, a quiet guy named Ienzo, didn't know what was troubling me (though he was perceptive enough to see that I was unsettled). I had considered trying therapy a couple of times (I doubted therapists would be quick to throw me in an asylum or anything like that), but there was a problem—money. After the incident with the red-eyed stranger, I had been forced to leave my job—I had been simply unable to stand out in the dark. I was afraid, afraid that I would see the eyes again. I was ashamed of it, but it was true. On the one hand, this meant that I wouldn't have as many interactions with Sora anymore. On the other hand, it meant that I was out of a job. The economy still wasn't at its finest, so getting a new job was particularly difficult, especially with my limited background: I had gone to a good college, and was on my way to pursuing a degree when my friend got caught selling drugs on campus. Like an idiot, I had taken the blame, and gotten expelled. That really hurt my track record. Other schools were reluctant to accept me, and my friend didn't help; I hadn't heard from him since my last day at the college.

Eventually, I had managed to get a position as a doorman, but now, that was over. Now, I had to find a place that was willing to hire someone who had gotten expelled for drug dealing. As you might imagine, it wasn't easy.

So, I was three months unemployed, falling behind on the rent, in a position where it was very difficult to get a new job, and I was sleeping poorly, thanks to a resurgent memory of the red eyes that constantly haunted me, in, before, and after my sleep. And, I couldn't seem to get over my resentment of Sora. Somehow or other, I felt, he was responsible.

I turned over in my bed. I needed sleep, red eyes or not.

* * *

I woke to a hand shaking my shoulder. "Hey," said a voice. "You awake?"

I groaned. "You asked me to wake you up," the voice said.

I nodded, and managed to open my eyes. Standing over my bed was Ienzo, his blue-gray hair hanging in front of his face as usual. "Thanks," I mumbled.

"You getting up?" he asked.

Slowly, I nodded and swung myself out of bed, blinking to try and get the sleep out of my eyes. I needed to be alert; I had an interview that morning. Somehow, my resume had made it past the scrutinizing eyes of whoever hired people at a small local restaurant, and they were willing to consider me for the position of a waiter. It didn't seem like an exceptionally high-paying job, but I couldn't afford to be picky. Yawning broadly, I nodded at Ienzo. "Thanks."

"Sure. Just make sure you get moving. I have to leave in a few minutes for class."

I nodded sleepily. Ienzo was a graduate student at Columbia, studying to be a doctor. He had even gotten an internship at a nearby hospital, working under the tutelage of a doctor named Even Isaacson. "Right. I'll be fine; thanks for waking me up."

"No problem. Good luck with your interview."

I yawned again. "Thanks."

* * *

After getting dressed, splashing some cold water on my face (which, unfortunately, didn't do as much to wake me up as I had hoped), and failing to get my hair to lie flat, as usual, I went out to our kitchen area and ate breakfast, going over in my mind some of the information I had to prepare. The restaurant where I was applying was called Gullwing's. My contact had been someone named Rikku Goldstone, who had seemed quite bright and cheery over the phone. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too strict. I could really use a break.

Unfortunately, my body seemed to be conspiring against me; I could not shake my fatigue. Lack of sleep had really taken its toll…But, I was determined to show Rikku and whomever else would be there that I could do this job. And so, gathering my resolution, I left my apartment, thirty minutes before the interview was scheduled, and walked to the restaurant, hoping that the outside air would help to revitalize me. Unfortunately, it was August, and the warm and humid air did not make me feel more awake. On the contrary; it made me miss my sleep even more, and wish I was back in bed. Gritting my teeth, I steeled myself and practically ran the rest of the way, arriving at the restaurant almost fifteen minutes early.

_Great,_ I thought after I checked my watch. _Now what? I wait for a quarter of an hour?_

Well, better to be too early than too late. With one final mental check to make sure I was all prepared, I opened the door and headed in.

The restaurant was a small place, with a front desk only a couple of feet from the entrance and a small group of tables and chairs behind it. Behind the front desk stood a gray-haired woman, though she didn't look older than thirty or so. She looked at me, and, with a shock, I realized that her eyes were red. _No, not now,_ I thought, as my fear threatened to overtake me. My mind whirled. _They're probably just contacts or something._ She did look like the type to wear red contacts—dark clothing and a somewhat gloomy expression. It was probably her look, or whatever.

She looked at me, eyes half-open. "How many in your party?"

Oh. She thought I was here to eat. I cleared my throat. "I'm, uh, not here to eat," I said. "I have an interview scheduled for ten-thirty. My name's Roxas White."

She blinked. "White? Oh, yes." She stood up. "Follow me."

She walked towards the back of the restaurant, and I followed. Finding my mind still on her eyes, I found myself asking, "Those contacts?"

She turned around and raised an eyebrow, unsettling me even further. "Of course," she said, her tone suggesting my question was ridiculous. I felt pretty foolish. Of course they were contacts. She didn't actually have red eyes.

But then, did that mean that the tall stranger had had red contacts, too? But if that was the case, why was the memory so unsettling?

I shook my head. Not the time to think about it. I had an interview to attend to. I had already lost points with my contact question, and I couldn't afford to mess up again.

I followed the woman to the back and through a door before she came up to another door that hung open. On a small plaque outside it I read _Rikku Goldstone, Assistant Manager._ I blinked, nervous. I was going to be interviewed by the Assistant Manager? Well, then again, it was a small business. There probably weren't a whole lot of people who were available to interview me.

"Rikku," called the gray-haired woman, walking into the office.

Rikku looked up from her work. She was young, maybe even younger than I was—or maybe she just had a youthful look about her. Her face was cheerful, and long blonde hair hung down her shoulders. "What's up, Paine?"

_Pain? She's named Pain?_ I thought. _Geez, she must really be working on the emo image._ I tried not to let my thoughts show.

"Roxas White here says he has an appointment with you," said Paine, her voice flat as a pancake compared to Rikku's bubbly tone.

Rikku turned to me and smiled. "Oh, yeah!" She stood up. "Well, Roxas, you're a little early, but I'm glad to see you!" She held out her hand, and I shook it, smiling back at her and fighting off a yawn. I could not show any signs of fatigue.

"You all set here, then?" asked Paine.

"Yep," said Rikku. "Thanks, Paine!"

Paine nodded and walked away, to return to her post at the front desk.

Rikku crossed to the door and closed it. "Well, it's nice to meet you in person," she said.

"You, too," I replied.

She walked back over to her desk. "Well, we might as well get down to business." She sat, and indicated a chair across from her desk. "Please, sit down."

I did, wiping my palms on my pants as I did so. Nervousness clawed its way through my insides, but I did my best to ignore it. I was being given a chance to prove my worth. I couldn't afford any slip-ups.

"So…" said Rikku, turning to her computer. "Let's just pull up your resume here."

I waited for a minute while she did so. Then, she said, "There we go," and began reading. "So, I've already looked through this, but I thought we could go over it together, maybe highlight some of the more important points?"

I nodded, heart pounding. I could guess what some of these "more important points" were.

"All right, here we go," she said with a smile. "A lot of this deals with your college experience, so let's talk about that." She glanced at her screen. "Says here you went to Amherst. You must've been pretty smart, huh?"

"I did do well in school, yes," I said.

"Yep. What were you gonna major in?"

"Math."

"Math?" She raised an eyebrow. "You must have really been an academic, then. What were you planning on doing with math?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly sure," I said. "But I knew that I liked math, and studying it would give me a lot of options."

"This is true," she said, nodding. "It's a broad field. What did you like about it?"

I thought for a second. "I liked its logic," I said, "and its firmness. There wasn't a whole lot of ambiguity in math. Numbers behaved in a specific way, dictated by rules and theorems."

"So you're a pretty logical, rule-driven person?"

"Yes, I would say that I am." _No room for vampires in my mind, Sora,_ I thought satisfactorily.

"Okay. Would you consider that a good thing?"

I nodded. "I would. I believe that the world and our society is structured in a certain way for a good reason. We have ways of doing things that are in place, and people are most productive and useful when they go along with them."

"So you're more of a status quo type of person?"

I hesitated briefly. "Not necessarily. Rules can lead to change. It's part of how the world goes. I just think that it's good to let the change happen naturally, rather than trying to force it out of its turn."

"Out of its turn?"

"Yes. Before its time, if you will. For instance, I don't think that this country should make gay marriage a national legal thing right now, because so many people are still uncomfortable with the idea. But I think it's something that should be worked towards, and implemented when the time is right."

"Uh-huh. All right, that's good to know." She turned back to my resume. "Says here you were in an environmental rights group in college."

I nodded. "Yes. Environmental protection is another issue I believe needs to be worked towards. There is a lot of evidence of environmental degradation, and we should pay attention to it and work to make sure that we don't ruin the one Earth that we've got."

"Right," she said, smiling. "Good to know you've got an opinion on the future of our planet. You'd like Yuna, our Head Manager. She's a big environmentalist."

"Is she?" I asked.

"Yep. Always makes sure that we're as green as possible."

I grinned. "That's good. Every little bit helps."

"Precisely."

I felt my spirits rising; this was going quite well so far. Maybe I would be able to get past my difficulties and actually secure a job…

"Well," said Rikku, interrupting my thoughts, "we've dodged the elephant on the resume long enough." She tapped the screen. "It says you didn't finish your college education. Why was that?"

Uh-oh. Here's where it would go downhill… "I…I got into some trouble."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? What kind of trouble?"

_Here it comes…_ "I was expelled for drug dealing."

She made a face. "Drug dealing?" She looked and sounded almost incredulous, like she couldn't believe that the agreeable young man in front of her had once done something so heinous.

I nodded. "It was a particularly dark time for me. I made some choices I'm not at all proud of, but I can't go back and change them. I've since sworn off any sort of that activity, and I promise you that I will not go back to it."

"Hm." She remained unsmiling. "Why did you do it?"

I hated lying, I really did. But there were times when it was necessary, and now was one of them. Sure, I had considered telling the truth and saying that my friend had been the one to do it, but with no proof to back up my claim, it would sound like I was just making up excuses. So, I sat there and lied through my teeth to the friendly, cheerful woman who sat across from me. "It was a time in my life when I didn't think about other people so much as I thought about what was best for me. I knew that it would be a good way to gain a lot of money, so…I just went ahead and did it."

"I see." She brightened up a bit. "But you've had no more experiences of that sort ever since?"

I shook my head. "No, none."

"Well, that's good."

Thankfully, she moved on after that. The fact that she was still interviewing me was a good sign; it meant that she wasn't so put off by my criminal record that she would refuse to consider hiring me. All I needed to do now was continue to act my best.

Unfortunately, I was still fighting my body's tiredness. I had to hold off multiple yawns, which became harder to do as time went on. But, finally, Rikku said, "Okay, I think that'll do it for the questioning bit." She got up. "Enough of that tedious stuff."

I rose, as well, wondering what she meant. Was there another part to this interview? Maybe I would be asked to demonstrate practical skills.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to keep you for a little longer," she said.

"That's fine," I replied. "Whatever you need."

"Excellent," she said. "I'd like to see how you'd do practically, then." She walked towards the door. "Follow me."

I did so, and she led me to another back room that turned out to be the kitchen. A number of people were at work, a few of which nodded hello to Rikku as she walked through. "This is our kitchen staff, as you can probably tell," she said.

I nodded as I looked around. They seemed like pleasant enough people, though there wasn't much to go by. "So," said Rikku, drawing my attention back to her, "if you're gonna wait here, you'll have to get used to working around them. But, before we deal with that, I'd just like to see how well you serve me, as if I were a customer."

I nodded. "Okay, sounds good." I tried to sound upbeat, even though I could often feel myself drifting off. I mentally shook myself. _Come on, can't my adrenaline kick in?_ I thought. _This is an important situation, here, and I need to be alert._

"You okay?" said Rikku, noticing my far-off look.

"Oh-oh, yeah," I said. "Sorr—"

Unfortunately, I was cut off by a large yawn, one I couldn't prevent. "Tired?" asked Rikku after I had finished.

Great. I might as well have said that I found this place boring. "I'm really sorry," I said. "I…I haven't been sleeping very well lately."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Rikku with a concerned expression. "Have you tried taking something for that?"

"A few times." But, for some reason, it had barely helped. _Why_ was my mind so hung up on this memory?

"Well, hopefully you'll feel better soon," said Rikku. "Maybe you could go to a doctor if it persists?"

I nodded, eager to get off the topic. I didn't want Rikku to think that I was physically unfit for the job.

"Anyways, back to business," she said. "Here's what we'll do. I'll go sit down at one of the tables, and all you need to do is speak to me as if I were a customer. We'll pretend I've seen a menu, and have several options in mind. You don't have to actually bring me anything…at least, not yet. When I order, you can just go off and pretend to come back with what I've asked for." She grinned. "We'll mime it. Got all that?"

I nodded, already thinking about how I would go about this. It couldn't be too hard, surely. I had been to restaurants before; I knew what waiters usually said.

"Let's give it a try then," she said. And with that, she led me into the dining area, and sat down at a nearby table. "Whenever you're ready!" she said brightly.

I took a minute to collect myself, then approached the table. "Hi, and welcome to Gullwing's," I said in the most upbeat tone I could manage. "My name is Roxas. How are you doing today?"

"I'm doing great, Roxas!" said Rikku.

"That's good to hear," I replied. "Well, can I get you anything to drink?"

"Um…yeah," said Rikku. She appeared to be in thought, so I waited for her. "Uh…I'll have…a root beer. No, wait, a lemon iced tea. Or raspberry. Actually, could I have half lemon iced tea, half raspberry?"

I wasn't sure if she was testing my patience, or if she really was having trouble making up her mind. If it was the former, she was certainly a good actor. "All right," I said. "Iced tea, half lemon, half raspberry?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding.

"Okay, then. I'll be right back."

I walked back to the kitchen, then, thinking that there wasn't any point in lingering there if I wasn't actually going to get anything, went right back. "Here you go," I said, handing her an imaginary drink. I couldn't help but feel a little silly.

"Thank you," she said, pretending to accept it.

A second passed, and then I said, "Have you decided what you'd like to eat?"

"Yes," she said, seeming fairly confident with her choice this time. "I'll have your special, that specially-prepared chicken wing."

"Okay," I said, even though I had no idea what she was talking about. "All right, I'll be back with your food in a few minutes."

Again, I went back to the kitchen and returned with her pretend food, still feeling rather self-conscious that I was doing something tantamount to playing make-believe with my possibly future boss. But Rikku seemed perfectly happy to be doing it, so I kept going along. Finally, I gave her the "check," and told her to have a nice day. "Very good," she said, standing up and ending the simulation. "Now, just one more thing…"

How long was this interview going to take? No, I couldn't think like that. I had to be willing to do whatever I had to to get this job. (Within reason, of course.)

"Let's see how well you can actually carry the food," she said. "Come with me."

She led me back to the kitchen, and, upon getting in, yelled, rather loudly, "Hey, Wakka! I need a bit of food here!"

One of the chefs, a tall man with tan skin and orange hair, walked over to us. "What kinda food, Rikku?" he asked.

"Any kind," she said. "I just want to see how well Roxas here can carry a tray of food."

He looked over to me. "You're applying to be a waiter?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Well, good luck," he said with a grin. "Yeah, hang on a minute, Rikku." He walked over to a nearby counter, grabbed a handful of chicken breasts, and brought them over. "These good?" he asked.

"Fine," said Rikku, grabbing a clean plate from a nearby stack and placing the breasts on them. "Thanks, Wakka."

"No problem." With another grin at me, he went back to his duties.

"Now, let's see here," said Rikku. Taking a few more plates and a tray, she arranged them so that each plate had a chicken breast on it and they all lay on the tray. "Okay, I'm gonna head back out and sit down again," she said to me. "Just bring this out to me. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sure," I said. I felt myself begin to relax a little bit. I could do this. Sure, I was still tired, but not so much so that I couldn't carry a tray of plates.

"See you out there, then!" With a smile, Rikku went back out to the tables. I gave her a minute to get seated, then picked up the tray and went out myself. It only took me a second to locate her, and I began to head over.

But then, I noticed Paine approaching out of the corner of my eye, leading a couple of people to a table of their own. As I looked over, she glanced up at caught my eye. Her red eyes met mine, and I felt myself freeze. _The eyes…_

The memory hit me full force. The tall stranger, and his red eyes, boring into me and taking full control. I was powerless. I could do nothing. And there he was, ready to…

I felt myself stumble, and suddenly, the tray wasn't in my hands anymore. A second later, I heard a crash. Blinking several times, I gradually returned to reality, then almost wished I hadn't. On the floor in front of me was the tray, dropped from my hands. Also on the floor were the chicken breasts, which had slipped off of the plates, and shattered fragments of the plates themselves, which had broken upon impact with the floor.

"Roxas!" I looked up to see Rikku hurrying over to me. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Still shaken, I said, "Yeah, I…I don't know what happened…"

She looked concernedly at me for a moment, then turned her attention to the mess on the floor. "Well, this happens," she said, "and we have someone for it." She walked over to the kitchen and yelled, "Tidus! Get your butt out here!"

I remained standing, unable to believe my luck. The interview had been going so well. I had even managed to patch up my slip-ups…or so it had seemed. But this would lose me a lot of points. I seriously doubted Rikku would want to hire me after this.

She walked back up to me. "Don't worry, Roxas," she said. "We'll get this cleaned up." She looked at her watch. "Oh, shoot." She turned back to me. "Roxas, I'm really sorry, but I have to head off to a meeting in just a few minutes, so I'm gonna have to leave the interview here. But thank you so much for coming out, and I'll contact you once we've made a decision."

She held out her hand, and I took it. "Thank you for taking the time to interview me," I managed to say.

"It was my pleasure. Have a great day."

* * *

I didn't. I walked slowly back to my apartment, frustrated and disappointed. That memory had interfered with my life again. This time, it had probably cost me a job. I put my face in my hand. When would this torment end? I needed something to help me. I didn't know what. I didn't care what. Well…anything except Sora. He was the last person I wanted to see. He would only make things worse, like he had been for the past couple of months.

I clenched my fists. What was his problem? And what was his real connection with the red-eyed stranger?

I doubted I would ever know.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**So, there we go. Initial impressions? Suggestions? Things I should keep doing/stop doing?**

**Until next time!**


	2. Sora Takes on Exorcism

**Good to see so many people have picked up on this sequel! Here's the next chapter. Let****'s check up on an old friend, shall we?  
**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

SORA

Things weren't going too well for me.

For one thing, I was falling behind on my rent. Business had been slow in the past couple of weeks, which had put a damper on the more upbeat mood I had had from recovering from my broken leg. And without business, I didn't get paid.

For another thing, I had a couple of friends who were mad at me. Though one of them, Roxas White, my old doorman, probably wouldn't consider us friends. About three months ago, he had undergone a traumatic experience, and I had tried to help him with it, explaining what had happened and hoping to find a way to settle him down after the experience. Unfortunately, he had not believed me, and had rebuffed every attempt I had made to help him, eventually forcing me to stop my efforts by threatening to tell the police I had been harassing him. I hadn't given up, though; whatever Roxas thought, he was still my friend, and I wasn't going to just leave him all alone.

Then, there was the matter of my best friend, Riku Taiko, who was still sore at me for not keeping him up to date with a series of events that had happened three months ago (around the same time Roxas had been traumatized—the events were, in fact, connected). Even though I hadn't told him so that I wouldn't distract him from his work, he still felt like I didn't trust him enough. So, I had those things on my plate.

Oh, and did I mention that I was face-to-face with a demon that was determined to tear my throat open?

Well, technically, it was a man possessed by a demon, but the eyes that were looking at me were not human. They were a malevolent shade of yellow, nicely complementing the murderous stare that I was receiving.

I should probably explain. I'm a private investigator who specializes in cases involving supernatural creatures. These beings were actually found all over, if you knew where to look. And I did. I had been trained in hunting them (I had even been given the nickname "The Darkness Hunter"), and knew how to recognize an instance of one, and how to deal with it. Well, most of the time. There were times when I had to improvise, or rely on chance to get me out of a particularly tough situation.

Take the current situation I was in, for instance. I had hoped to catch the demon by surprise and tie its host body up while I made the necessary preparations to get it out. I had never excised a demon before, so I wanted to make sure that I was able to complete all of the preparations without being interrupted. Unfortunately, things hadn't gone as planned, and now the demon, unbound, was glaring at me with a knife in its host's hand. I had no doubts as to what it planned to do.

I had been in better situations. But, then again, I had been in worse situations, too.

The demon spoke. "You should not have gotten involved, human," it said in a voice which was a combination of its host's voice and its own, raspy, guttural one. "Now you will die."

I took out my gun and pointed it at him. "You're not taking another step."

The demon laughed. "You will not hurt me, fool. You know that hurting me is hurting my host." It smiled cruelly. "And, besides, I can escape a dying body before I myself perish. You will only succeed in killing Braig Carter." Its eyes lit up. "And I, Xehanort, will go free! You cannot win!"

I grimaced. From what I had heard, Braig Carter wasn't the nicest of people, but he didn't deserve to die. Besides, the demon, Xehanort, was right—killing the host would not kill the possessing spirit (unlike, say a wendigo spirit, which became irrevocably tied to its host after possession). Xehanort was a demon straight from Hell (or wherever exactly demons came from), and destroying it would be among the hardest tasks I had undertaken.

_How do I keep getting into these messes?_ I thought.

_You're a supernatural investigator, idiot,_ answered another part of my mind. _You do things like this for a living._

Well, yes, but…this case specifically had been particularly interesting…

* * *

A few days ago, I had been approached by a man named Demyx, who had voiced concerns about a colleague of his, Braig Carter. "He's been acting kinda weird lately," he told me.

"Weird how?" I asked.

"He seems…I dunno…more reserved and sullen than usual," said Demyx. "Like something big's been bugging him."

"And you want us to find out what it is?"

He nodded. "I like the guy, and I owe him for a couple of things. Not everyone likes him, but…that doesn't mean he deserves to be left alone."

"No," I agreed. "All right, we'll look into it."

"Thank you."

* * *

And so, I had begun an investigation of Braig Carter, accompanied, as always, by my partners Donald Duke and James "Goofy" Gorsch. While Donald could be short-tempered and Goofy could be silly, when we got down to business, they were excellent partners (not to mention excellent friends). We had trailed Carter for a couple days and observed his activities, and they were indeed strange. We had kept our eyes out for indications that this might be a supernatural case, and found plenty. The only problem was determining what kind of supernatural creature we were dealing with. There were dozens, but we could eliminate most of them based on the situation; for instance, as Carter had lacked red eyes and pale skin, he wasn't a vampire. (The lack of pale skin also eliminated options like a wendigo.) But there was definitely something up with him. Finally, after hearing his demonic voice (from a distance), seeing his yellow eyes, and observing him participating in activities that pointed to demonic magic, we had deduced that Carter had been possessed by a demon.

This revelation had shaken us up a bit. "We've never faced an actual demon before," said Donald.

"No, but there's a first time for everything," said Goofy, always the optimist. "We can do it. We've defeated a perfect vampire, remember?"

"That was mainly because we had Cloud to help us." Donald named a friend of ours, a vampire hunter who had greatly assisted us on a previous occasion.

"Come on, Donald," I said. "Have some faith. We've got The Guide, too." I was referring to a document entitled "Supernatural Beings of the Natural World," which held a large wealth of information about supernatural creatures, from the well-known ones to the more obscure ones.

"The Guide can't tell us everything," said Donald.

"But it can get us started," I countered. "Let's just see what we have to do."

* * *

We studied what "Supernatural Beings of the Natural World" had to say about demons, and it wasn't heartening. True demons were very difficult to destroy, as they first had to be coaxed out of their hosts' bodies, and then contained in a special container lined with gold. Gold apparently had a similar effect on demons that silver had on vampires—it weakened them, and caused pain upon contact. Fortunately, for a demon to leave its host, it had to assume a physical form, and so, if one moved quickly enough, one could trap the demon in the container as soon as it left the body.

The trouble was getting it to leave. Unfortunately, religious methods did not work; invoking God or Jesus or any religious figure had about as much effect as invoking Bozo the Clown, a crucifix did not have any more power than any other stick of wood, and holy water—well, actually, holy water did occasionally have an effect, but it wasn't too easy to get, and relying on a method that only sometimes worked was too risky.

The best way, said The Guide, was to coerce the demon out of the body using gold. Inserting gold through body orifices could make the demon shrink away from those parts of the body, and towards an opening. For instance, inserting a gold bar rectally would drive the demon away from the lower body, and towards an exit point, say, the mouth.

Yeah, it wasn't pretty. But, then again, what I did rarely was.

The problem now was getting the gold. I did not have any, aside from a couple pieces of jewelry I had inherited from my mother which would not be very useful. My partners were in a similar situation, having little or no gold available. Then, there was the matter of how our pay, while decent, did not provide us with the necessary funds to buy the gold items that we needed.

But we had resources. For help, I had turned to my mentor and friend—Riku's father, Terra Taiko. Terra, along with his wife, Aqua, had taken me in after my parents and sister were killed by harpies (long story). Terra himself had then taught me about supernatural creatures, and had guided me through the events that had led me to my current situation. (Sure, it was a frequently life-threatening situation, but that didn't matter to me; I was one of the few people who could really help out other people who were victims of something supernatural.) We kept in touch, and I occasionally contacted him when I needed help with something. Now, I had thought, would be a good time; it wasn't an exceptionally urgent matter, and he could be a good source of valuable information, with his experience.

So, I had called Riku's parents, who lived in California. His mother answered with a cheerful greeting, having recognized my number via their caller ID. "Sora!" she said. "Good to hear from you!"

"Thanks, Aqua," I said. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, thanks. Terra's busy as ever, of course, and I've been kept pretty busy, too. But we're both holding up well."

"Good to hear."

"I'm guessing you called for him?"

"Yeah. Is he in?"

"He is. Hold on for one second while I get him."

"Great. Thanks, Aqua."

I waited for a moment, and then the familiar voice of Terra Taiko came over the phone. "Sora!" His voice was accented, as he had emigrated from Japan as a teenager. "How nice to hear from you. How are you holding up?"

"Pretty well," I responded.

"But you've got a problem you need my help with?"

"Yeah, I'd like your advice on something." I described the current situation, how Donald, Goofy, and I believed Braig Carter had been possessed by a demon. "So, we just need a way to get it out," I said. "We checked The Guide, and it said to use gold to force it out of the body and trap it. The only problem is, we don't have any."

"So, what, you want to use some of mine?"

"Well…" That _would_ be the ideal option… "Or if you know a good way we can do it without gold."

"Hm. That's a tough one. I've only tackled two such situations in my line of work." Terra, like me, was a private investigator who often dealt with supernatural creatures.

"Not very many demons in California?" I said jokingly.

"Heh, no. Or at least not in the area. Maybe there are other people in the area who are getting rid of them instead of me."

"Maybe. But you've only done it twice?"

"Yes, and both times, I've used some of my family's gold items. I'm not sure how you would do it without. Well, depending on the demon, you might be able to coerce it out of the body with taunts or something. But then you'd be stuck with a disembodied demon, and you wouldn't be able to trap it. There's always holy water, but there's no guarantee that it's actually holy, and you can't tell without testing it on something."

He was silent for a while, as both he and I ran over possibilities in our minds. I had felt myself move away from the idea of using his items after he had said that they belonged to his family; I could see why he wouldn't want to part with them. Finally, he said, "Let me think about this for a while and get back to you."

"Okay. I'll keep thinking, too."

"All right. Talk to you later."

"Right. Bye."

* * *

After some more unsuccessful brainstorming with Donald and Goofy, Terra called me back and said that he'd be willing to lend me his golden items that he had used to capture demons himself. I was surprised, but, I will admit, glad that he had made that decision; it was, I thought, the easiest solution that there was. After making me promise that I would treat them with the utmost care, he explained to me how I should use them: use the gold chains to bind the host and hurt the demon, insert the gold rods into the parts of the body where I wanted to repel the demon, and capture the demon inside the gold pot as soon as it left the body.

A few days later, I received the items, packed very securely in a couple boxes heavily marked "Fragile." After inspecting the items firsthand and deciding exactly how we would use them, the three of us set up a plan to drive the demon out of Carter, involving lying in wait for him in his apartment, then surprising him with the gold items, immobilizing him and allowing us to excise the demon with little resistance.

But, as I have seen, things rarely go according to plan. Goofy, the least violence-inclined of our trio, had volunteered to stand guard outside Carter's apartment and let us know when he was coming—Donald and I would be inside the apartment, lying in wait. Unfortunately, Xehanort must have had enhanced hearing, as it heard Goofy's report to us, attacked him with a knife, and entered the apartment through the fire escape, catching _us_ by surprise. So, that was how I found myself face-to-face with an unbound, knife-wielding demon.

Donald, who wielded one of the gold chains and one of the gold rods, glanced at Xehanort nervously. "What now, Sora?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth.

"What now?" the demon answered. "Give up. Your friend lies dying outside, and you will soon follow."

I gritted my teeth. I didn't know how badly Goofy was hurt, but I couldn't leave him outside, wounded as he was. "Donald," I said, "get outside. Get some help for Goofy."

"I can't leave you here!" protested Donald.

"We can't leave him, either," I countered. "I can take care of myself. I've done it before."

Indecision racked Donald's face for a moment. Then, he nodded. "All right," he said. "Just make sure to survive."

"I will."

Placing the chain and rod on a nearby table, Donald made his way to the exit, keeping an eye on the demon.

It let out a snarl. "You're not going anywhere." It leapt at Donald, but in that same moment, I made my move. Dropping my gun (it wouldn't be of any use to me against Xehanort), I grabbed my chain and hurled it at the body of Braig Carter. Taken by surprise, Xehanort recoiled, barely dodging the chain, but giving Donald the chance he needed to escape. He opened the door, dashed out, and slammed it shut.

I glared into the demon's yellow eyes. "It's just you and me now."

For a moment, its gaze was filled with fury. Then, Carter's mouth curled into a smile. "Fine," said the demon. "It will be easier to deal with just one of you. And once you're finished, I can hunt the others at my leisure."

My fist curled around my gold rod. "You won't touch my friends."

"Try and stop me."

I moved to the table and picked up Donald's chain, mine lying a few feet from Xehanort. "Can do," I said.

For a moment, we stared at each other. Then, simultaneously, we made our moves. Xehanort leapt forward, as did I. It had its knife aimed at my heart, and I had my gold equipment at the ready.

We met a split second later. I swerved out of the way of its blade, slamming the gold rod into its side. As the demon snarled in pain, I flicked the gold chain, sending it at Xehanort, hoping to curl it around it and immobilize it. It did wrap around him once, but the demon, in its anger, summoned a burst of strength and removed itself from the chain's embrace. Now livid beyond all imagination, it ran at me, practically foaming at the mouth. I had to remind myself to keep a cool head; if I retained my rational thought and the demon didn't, it would give me an advantage.

Unfortunately, Xehanort's fury gave it an advantage, too. It was too fast for me to dodge, and the knife in Carter's hand cut into my arm. Wincing, but determined to withstand the pain, I slammed my gold rod into Carter's solar plexus (though the pain in my arm forced me to drop it immediately afterwards). As the demon was still subject to the weaknesses of the human body, it had to take a moment to recover, and I took the opportunity. I flicked the chain again, sending it around Carter's waist a second time. This time, though, I grabbed the other end with my other hand, holding it firmly in place.

The demon felt the gold, and let out an unearthly scream. I grimaced, only having heard a scream that terrible once before, but kept a firm grip on the chain. Then, transferring one end of the chain to my right hand, so that it now held both, I reached down with my left arm (my wounded one) and picked up my fallen rod. Then, gathering my strength, I shoved it into Carter's mouth, cutting off the demon's scream.

The effect was immediate. Xehanort dropped the knife and bent over, emitting a sort of choking sound. Seizing the opportunity, I wrapped the chain around Carter's arms, resisting the demon's struggles. Then, leaving it for a second, I retrieved my gold chain and Donald's gold rod, which was thinner than mine. Returning to the demon, I managed to wrap the other gold chain around its neck, and stick the other gold rod up its nose.

I stood up, panting. Everything was in place, hopefully. The demon would be in enough pain from the gold that it would want to escape the body. And it would go for one of the openings that was as far away from the gold as possible—in this case, in the lower part of the body.

I made a face as I got the gold pot. This wasn't going to be pretty.

* * *

It wasn't. But, without going into the details, let's just say that I managed to catch Xehanort as it made its escape and trap it in the pot. Then, I attended to Braig Carter, removing the gold items from his body and placing him on the couch. He was unconscious, and, to be honest, I wasn't sure what I would say when he woke up. Of course, he might not even wake up for several hours—possession took a toll on the body.

Fortunately, at that moment, Donald returned. "Sora!" he said, coming through the door.

I looked up at him, breathing heavily. "I got it," I said. "Demon's in the pot."

He let out a sigh of relief. But then, a look of skepticism crossed his face. "Wait…how do I know the demon hasn't possessed you now?"

"Because my kingdom remains stalwart."

"Does that work for possession, too?"

"Well, there's also the fact that you're a sissy who reads vampire romance novels."

He made a face. "You're a dick, Sora."

I gave a half-grin. "Sorry. Just kidding about the sissy part. But did I convince you?"

"I guess so." He noticed my arm. "Looks like it managed to get you. You okay?"

"I'll be fine," I said. "The wound's not too deep. How's Goofy?"

"He's doing all right. Xehanort didn't hurt him too badly, but I still got an ambulance. He's on the way to the hospital now."

I nodded. "Good to hear."

He indicated my arm. "We should get that treated."

So, "borrowing" some supplies from Carter's bathroom, we treated my wound and wrapped up my arm. It still hurt, but I knew I would get over it. "What about Carter?" I asked. "He's gonna wake up and not know what's happened."

Donald looked at the prone figure on the couch. "Will he even wake up soon?"

"I dunno. But he might."

"Well, what was our explanation going to be?"

I thought back to the conversation we had had before tackling this case, about what our cover story would be to explain the strange occurrences, without revealing the actual details. "We said that he had had a secret relationship, and that she broke up with him, so he was acting really sullen. Then, he hit his head and forgot everything."

"Oh, yeah. Stretching it a little, isn't it?"

"Hey, there are a lot of things that people will believe, if it's rational."

"I suppose."

We waited for a few minutes to see if Carter would wake up. When he didn't, Donald sighed and said, "Why don't you head back, Sora? Kairi's probably worried."

I put a hand to my face. "Oh, damn, I completely forgot to call her. But are you sure you'll be okay?"

He shrugged. "Well, talking's not usually my thing, but you need the break."

I looked at him. "This is a little uncharacteristic of you. Are you sure _you_ haven't been possessed by the demon?"

He scowled. "Just get going, smartass."

* * *

I took him up on his offer, and left Carter's apartment, taking the gold items with me (being especially careful with the pot). Before I did, though, I made a quick call…

The taxi driver that I hailed gave me an odd look when I came into his cab with a handful of gold items, but I assured him that they were mine, and he seemed to be satisfied. He took me back to my apartment building, and I felt a pang of guilt as I saw the new doorman, a quiet guy named Neku Sakuraba. Not that I didn't like the guy, but he wasn't Roxas, who was probably going through some really tough times now, and I couldn't help him.

I put those in the back of my mind. I was tired, and I had a feeling I was about to be cheered up…

I took the elevator up to eighth floor and stumbled to my apartment, barely having the energy to stand, let alone walk along a hallway carrying an assortment of gold items. But, I made it, and pounded on the door.

It opened. And in the doorway stood the light of my life, who brightened any situation I might face—my girlfriend, Kairi.

Kairi's story is a long one. She was actually a vampire until about three months ago, when the vampire that had turned her into a vampire made her not a vampire anymore…look, it's really hard to explain. But, suffice to say, we had had a lot of experiences together, and had come to realize our connection. So now, we were living together, and had never been happier.

"How are you?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

I grinned. "I am now."

She hit me lightly on the arm, but smiled. "You're so cheesy."

"You don't seem to mind it."

She motioned me in. "Come on in."

I did so, and placed the gold items on the counter in the kitchen. "Be careful with those," I said.

Kairi eyed the jar warily. "So, you did it? Is there a demon in there?"

I nodded. "It'll eventually disintegrate, but we'll have to be careful not to give him any chance at escaping."

"Gotcha." She noticed my arm. "You're hurt."

"Not too badly."

"What happened?"

I related the story of our fight, not going into all the details (especially how I ended up getting Xehanort out of Braig's body), but giving her the general gist of what had happened. "You must be pretty tired, then," she commented.

I sighed. "Yeah."

"Well, let's get you to bed, hm?"

I had no objections. At the moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to fall asleep in Kairi's arms.

I smiled. Sure, life may have some difficulties, but there was always a bright spot. There was always a light that never went out.

And mine was Kairi.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**So, we see how Sora's doing. But his world is about to get turned upside down...**


	3. A Strange Sighting in Alaska

**Sorry for the delay, guys. Things are getting really busy—so I'm not gonna have as much time to work on my story. I'll do my best, but expect less frequent updates.**

**Anyways, let's get down to business. This chapter features a new POV, one that probably won't make another appearance but is rather important here...**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

AELEUS

Alaska's a beautiful place. People say that, but you can never really appreciate it until you've actually been there. If you find the right area, it's nature at its best. Mountains, trees, lakes…it's a sight everyone should experience sometime.

I was lucky enough to see it myself when I visited my cousin's lumber company, located in Juneau. As he was the one who provided me with the wood for my construction projects, I occasionally went out and visited to see how things were going up there. Since my cousin was also celebrating his thirtieth birthday, now was the perfect time. And so, I bought a plane ticket, departed from JFK Airport, and arrived in Juneau International Airport in early August. After spending several days there, celebrating my cousin's birthday and checking up on his lumber company, I spent some time sightseeing—it's hard to visit Alaska and not check out the scenery.

One day, though, I came across something that I hadn't expected to see, and that would turn out, as I later found out, to spark something very important in the life of an old acquaintance of mine.

I had gone out bird watching that day for bald eagles with my cousin, Dilan Windman. Something about the majesty and might of the birds that represented our country really resonated with me, and, as we were in Alaska, now was the perfect time to look for some. Fortunately, there was a state park just nearby dedicated to the preservation of bald eagles, so Dilan drove us there with a couple pairs of binoculars. It kept me occupied for a while. We both sat in silence, neither of us being particularly loquacious people, and contented ourselves with simple observation. I watched the birds as the swooped down into the Chilkat River and caught fish in their powerful talons, then took them back to their nests to feed their young.

I hoped that they would be able to survive in the long run, seeing as how their habitats were in danger. That may sound strange coming from someone whose cousin is in charge of a lumber company, and who supports that lumber company, but Dilan was careful to minimize the damage that he caused to the wildlife. And I did my best, during my construction projects, to make sure that I wasn't severely ruining any animal habitats.

After a few hours of moving around to different locations and watching the eagles, we decided to head back; Dilan's parents were back at his house, and we had made some plans with them for the afternoon. So, we got into Dilan's pickup and drove back. "Thanks for showing me those locations," I said.

"No problem," he responded. "I'm surprised we didn't see more people there, actually; that's a rather popular place."

"Hm. Well, it meant more peace and quiet."

"That it did."

We drove on for a while, but then, as Dilan was navigating through the scenic roads he had taken earlier that day, I heard the engine falter. "Uh-oh," I said. "How long since this car has been checked?"

Dilan frowned. "Too long."

The engine's noise continued to die down, and so Dilan pulled over. "This could be a bit of a problem," he said.

"Any tow trucks in the area?" I asked.

"Some," he said. "But I'd rather not use one unless I have to." He got out. "Hold on for a moment; I'll take a look at it and see if it's something I can figure out."

I nodded. "Very well." I opened the door and got out, too, not wanting to spend several minutes waiting for my cousin sitting down in a truck. "I'm just going to walk around a bit."

"All right. Don't go too far."

"I won't."

The truck had broken down next to a span of trees that stretched far off in the distance. I found myself walking towards them, curious as to what I could find.

The feel of wilderness hung heavy in these trees, and I became caught up in it, looking around at what was just a tiny fraction of the natural beauty that Alaska had to offer. And, just a few minutes in, I heard movement off to my right. Careful to be quiet, I approached the source of the noise, and found myself only a few feet from a moose.

I stared at the huge animal, looking around lazily for something to eat, most likely. I had never managed to see one up close until then, and I was glad for the opportunity; I found them interesting creatures, their strong, heavy bodies seeming to represent stalwartness and resilience.

For a while, I kept watching the moose, and it didn't seem to notice me, just wandering around in search of food. Then, suddenly, it perked up its head, looking alarmed. I immediately became alert; if it had scented a predator, I probably didn't want to be around, especially if it was something big, like a bear. A second later, it took off running, evidently having been unnerved by something. Thinking that I had better leave, too (and that Dilan might be finished with the car by now), I turned around and made my way back.

But, just as I did, something caught my eye, and I turned. Frowning, I had to look at it for a moment before convincing myself that I wasn't seeing things.

Standing a few feet away, eyes directed to where the moose had been a couple of seconds ago, was a girl—or rather, a young woman, probably no older than twenty or so. She was wearing what looked to be a leather dress—and I don't mean slick, black leather, I mean rough brown leather—as well as a pair of sandals, but that was it. For a moment, I wondered if she belonged to a Native American tribe in the area, but she certainly didn't look Native American—her skin was pale, even paler than mine, and light blonde hair fell from her head down to her shoulders. She looked nervous, and…out of place, somehow.

I furrowed my brows in thought. A Caucasian woman, looking lost, dressed like a Native American…there were a few possibilities, but no way of knowing which one was the right one. Perhaps she actually was lost. Deciding to try to help her, in case that was the case, I spoke. "Hello?"

She whipped her head around to face me, looking alarmed. "Who are you?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

She continued to stare at me like a deer in headlights. "Are you lost?" I asked, hoping she understood English. I took a step forward. "Do you need hel—"

But, upon seeing me advance towards her, her look of fright intensified, and she turned and ran. "Wait!" I called, and ran after her; she seemed like she might be in trouble.

The woman was fast, but I had longer and stronger legs than she did, and I managed to close the distance between the two of us. Upon seeing me nearly on her, she turned around and began to speak. Unfortunately, it was in a language that I did not understand. I did, however, manage to identify her tone and expression—they were frightened, and almost pleading. "I'm not going to hurt you," I said, taking a step back and holding up my hands, hoping that I could get her to understand my intent. "I want to help you." I said it slowly, even though I was pretty sure she couldn't understand me.

However, something I said seemed to trigger something within her. She looked at me curiously. Then, she spoke again. "Sor…" she said.

_Sore? Is she in pain?_ I thought.

But she continued. "Sor…a…"

_Sora._ That sounded like a name. And it sounded familiar, too. Where had I heard it before…? "Sora?" I said. "Is that your name?"

She didn't answer. But, then again, I couldn't really say I was expecting her to. "Sor…a…" she said again. "Sora…Sora…Par…"

She was saying something else now. _Sora Par…_ That sounded even more familiar. "Sora Par?" I said.

"Sora," she repeated. "Sora, Sora P-Park…"

It sounded like she was trying to tell me something, though I had no idea why. Who was this Sora Park? It rang a bell with me for some reason, but I couldn't figure out why. Would he be able to help her? Did she need help? What with? I was tempted to ask, but I had come to learn that it would do nothing, and so I kept silent, waiting for her to say more.

Unfortunately, she never got the chance. A loud, harsh voice rang out, calling, "Naminé!"

The woman turned, as did I. Standing a few feet away, glaring at the pair of us, was a man, probably in his mid-twenties or so. He was standing behind a bush, so I could only see his top half, which was bare. (I found myself hoping that he would stay behind the bush, in case his bottom half was similarly dressed.) His skin was a light chestnut color, and his spiky hair was black. _He_ looked more like a Native American than the woman did. But he seemed to know her…maybe he had adopted her into his tribe? I wasn't quite sure how Native American tribal systems worked.

The woman mumbled something that sounded like a name, though I couldn't catch it. In response, the man said something else, still in a harsh tone. I frowned. I hadn't thought Native Americans mistreated women, but this one seemed to be forcibly dominating her. As if to back up my point, she meekly walked over to him and stood by him, as he said something else in a chastising tone.

But then, he turned his gaze to me. His look was intensely aggressive, and I almost found myself taking a step back. Then, he spoke again, baring his teeth—which, I noticed, seemed sharper than normal. I didn't understand a word he said, but it sounded like he was posing a question—though whether to me or the woman, I couldn't tell.

Apparently, it was the latter, as the woman looked up at him and said something that sounded like an answer. He turned back to her, and they conversed, seemingly arguing about something.

I felt like I should leave, but something held me back. I felt a degree of concern for this woman, even though I was pretty sure there wasn't much, if anything, I could do to help. I didn't feel like I should get involved in their relationship—maybe there was some sort of cultural significance behind their actions that I was unaware of.

Finally, the man turned away with a sour expression on his face, and said something to the woman, who nodded and turned away from me, looking as if she was about to go somewhere. She took a final backwards glance at me, then ran off, following her partner deeper into the woods. In a few seconds, both had disappeared into the trees.

I was so concentrated on her that I almost missed seeing something else. It was the man's lower body, which didn't look like it was bare. It looked like it was covered in wolf skin—except that, from the quick view I had of it, it seemed to fit him a lot better than wolf skin should. I didn't think wolves had legs as long as humans, but the skin seemed to fit the entirety of the man's legs. And the tail seemed to stick up a little, instead of hanging down…almost as if it were a part of the man's body.

I frowned. What had I stumbled upon? Curious, I walked over to the spot where the man and the woman had stood just moments before and looked around.

I was not prepared for what I saw next. There were two sets of footprints around the area and leading away from it. One was a set of small human footprints, undoubtedly the woman's. But the others…the others were large wolf paws.

* * *

I made my way back to the truck, my mind still trying to process what I had just seen. Who was that woman? Who was the man with her? Why did he seem so harsh to her? Why did he have wolf skin covering his legs while she did not? And, for that matter, where did he find such skin? It must have been from a particularly large wolf, to entirely cover his legs and to have the feet fit into the paws. But even then, the paw prints seemed unnaturally large. Could they be from some other animal? But what animal had canine paws that were that big?

Fortunately, my thoughts did not prevent me from finding my way back to the truck. "There you are," said Dilan as I emerged from the trees. "I was just about to go looking for you." He frowned as he saw my expression of perplexity. "Something the matter?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Dilan, do you know of any Native Americans in the area who dress in wolf skins from the waist down?"

He blinked, then shook his head. "No. But I don't profess to be an expert on Native Americans. Why? Did you see one?"

I nodded, and proceeded to relate the story of what I had seen in the woods. When I had finished, Dilan looked as confused as I did. "You're sure it was wolf skin covering his legs?"

"It looked like it. But I didn't get too close of a look."

"But you did see the paw prints."

I nodded. "Those I definitely saw."

"Hm." Dilan thought. "Could they have been manmade? Maybe he belongs to a tribe, or some other group, that creates special footwear for themselves to resemble wolf paws."

"Hm. I hadn't thought of that. Could be." My frown deepened. "But what about the young woman?"

Dilan mirrored my frown. "I'm not sure. It sounds like she's somehow been taken into the man's tribe."

"Taken in? How would that work?"

"I couldn't say for sure. But I do know that Native Americans wouldn't mistreat their women like that. Most of their societies are very egalitarian, sometimes even female-dominated, with women holding high positions of respect and authority. My guess is that he was harsh on her because she's white, not because she's female. It could be that he's resentful of what her people have done to his people."

I nodded slowly. "That would make more sense. Should we try to help her?"

He thought for a moment. "It might not be a good idea. We don't want to get involved in something we shouldn't. Besides, who are we to say that our way of life is better for her than his? Maybe he's just one person who isn't too nice to her, but the others from his tribe are."

"Mm, right. Still…"

"What?"

"The name that she mentioned. Sora Park. Who is it, and what does he have to do with her?"

"How do you know it's a man?"

"It rings a bell in my mind. I'm pretty sure I've heard that name before, and it was a man's."

"But you can't remember who it is?"

I shook my head. "No. If I did, I could find him and tell him about this. Maybe he would know who she is."

"You didn't find out her name, did you?"

I thought. "Actually, the man did say something that sounded like a name. It was…Naminé, I think."

"Naminé? Is that French? Maybe she's Canadian?"

"I couldn't say." I frowned. "I just need to remember who this Sora Park is. Then, I feel like I'll be able to get somewhere."

"Well, let's hope it'll come to you eventually." Dilan turned back to the truck. "Anyways, let's get going."

"You fixed the problem?"

"For the moment. I'll need to take the truck in to have the problem professionally dealt with, but we should be able to get back home with what I've done."

* * *

We returned to Dilan's house, his truck managing to hold up for long enough, but had to change our plans with his parents, as Dilan didn't want to go anywhere with his truck the way that it was. So, after he made arrangements with a nearby service company to have his truck looked at and fixed up, we decided to stay in. Dilan's parents were big word game fanatics, so he got out a couple of those and we spent a while playing them. I was never overly enthusiastic about word games, but I agreed to play to keep his parents happy and entertained.

All the while, however, the events of today were stuck in my mind. We hadn't mentioned them to anyone else, figuring that it was probably best to keep the information to ourselves, at least until I remembered whom Sora Park was. Unfortunately, I had little success with that. As it sounded like an Asian name, most likely Korean, I went through, in my mind, some Asian people who I might have heard of or briefly met in the past few months who might have been named Sora. I had no success, but I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something. But, with spending time with my aunt, uncle, and cousin, I wasn't able to devote all of my mental facilities to the task.

Until that evening, that is. After dinner, Dilan's parents decided to tone things down a notch, with his father reading a book and his mother doing a crossword puzzle. I took advantage of this quiet time to rack my brains as to who Sora Park was. After a few minutes, Dilan checked on me. "Any luck?" he asked.

I scowled and shook my head. "No. I keep feeling like I'm missing something, but I can't figure out what."

"Hm. Have you tried looking him up on the Internet?"

"No, but would it do anything? What are the chances that the Sora Park that I apparently know will be listed on the Internet?"

"It's possible. You could find a high school yearbook page or something that has his name."

My frown deepened. "Yeah, but there are probably a few of those with Sora Parks in them. What am I supposed to do, go through all of them until I find the right Sora Park, or…"

I stopped. "Hold on…" Something had clicked in my mind. Something about what I just said. _Sora Park, or…_ I had pronounced the "or" like "er," and it reminded me of something.

Sora Park, er.

Sora Parker.

"That's it," I said. "That's what I was missing."

"What?" Dilan asked.

"His name. It wasn't complete. Naminé, or whoever the woman was, only got out part of his name. His full name isn't Sora Park, it's Sora Parker."

"And you know a Sora Parker?"

I thought back, to almost four months ago, when I had been approached about a missing person… "Yes. I have met him. Only once, briefly, and a while ago. That's why it took so long to remember him." I looked at Dilan. "Sorry, but I may have to cut my visit short. I need to get back to New York."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**So, that should give you a hint of what's to come…though there are still some things to be revealed…**

**Also, I did my best to make sure that the factual information in this chapter was accurate. If I didn't get something right, I apologize.**

**Let me know what you thought!**


	4. Ienzo's Helping Hand

**All right, sorry for the long wait; I've had a lot on my plate recently (and I still do, so the next chapter will probably take another while). Fortunately, I've found the time to get this one all set. Hope you all have time to read it!**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

ROXAS

Two days after my interview at Gullwing's, my life was still a mess. I had heard nothing back from them (not that I expected to), and I had had no other offers for a job, or even an interview. To make matters worse, Ienzo seemed to always be busy, which served to highlight the contrast between his situation and mine even more—he had things to do, I did not. He was able to find work that earned him money, and would continue to. I was not.

I wasn't even able to sleep well; worry kept me up at night, both about finding a job and the red eyes. Not only were they unnerving, but they had cost me a potential job. Now the memory was becoming destructive, too.

I had no one to turn to. Well, almost no one. I could give _him_ a call—but that was a risk. He was often busy, rarely having time for me, and I didn't feel like he would present such a sympathetic ear. Besides, what if _he_ decided I was crazy, and needed to be put away for a while?

I sighed. Well…it was worth a shot.

I picked up my phone and pressed the 3 key, then brought it up to my ear. A few rings later, someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Dad," I said, keeping the nervousness out of my voice. Technically, Ansem White was my foster father, but he was the only parent I had ever known, and so I referred to him as my dad.

"Roxas." His tone was not displeased—but it wasn't very pleased, either. "What may I do for you?"

_Is it impossible that I just wanted to talk?_ I found myself thinking. But Ansem was a very rational person—even more so than me—with little room for sympathy. "I'm having a bit of a hard time right now, and I was wondering if you could help."

I could picture his frown. "Are you still unemployed? Did you try going back to the apartment and getting your job back?"

I sighed. I had only talked with my dad once since I had lost my job, and he had advised me to go back and try to get it back. "I told you, Dad, that job wasn't right for me."

"But it was employment. You can't afford to be picky, Roxas. Especially since it sounds like you still don't have a job."

I frowned. I hadn't told him the real reason I had quit—how could I?—but I was almost regretting that, since he seemed to think that I hadn't left my job for good enough reasons. "But it doesn't matter anyway," I said. "It's been three months. I'm sure they've hired someone else by now."

"Which is why you should have taken my advice when you had the chance."

I gritted my teeth. "But it's over, Dad. There's no use talking about the past when we can't change it. Can we focus on the present and the future now?"

For a moment, he said nothing. Then, in a clipped tone, he responded, "Very well. But if you have shown yourself to lack the responsibility to find employment for yourself, then I'm not sure if I should help you."

I gripped the phone so hard I thought it might break. What the hell was my father's problem? Firstly, I had been throwing myself at every available job out there since I had quit being a doorman. How could he say I lacked responsibility? Secondly, he was my father. My parent. He had actively made the choice to take me in, so he had to have wanted a child. And parents were supposed to support their children. I could understand the concept of tough love, and guessed that was what he was going for—but this was taking it too far. I, his son, was struggling, and he thought that I somehow deserved it? This was why I didn't talk to him very often.

Struggling to keep my voice level, I said, "I've been looking, Dad. I've been sending out applications all over the place. I just haven't been accepted."

"That would probably be because of your college record." His voice grew harder as he said this. Ansem was one of the only people who knew the true story behind my expulsion, but instead of sympathizing with me, he considered me a fool for having done so; believing that I should have let the guilty person be punished. And, of course, he had to rub it in every goddamned time that we spoke.

"What do you expect me to do about that?" My voice rose. "Tell people what really happened? Who would believe me? Besides, I've already been convicted. No one will think it's worth it to look back into a case that's closed. I would just look like I'm trying to make an excuse for what I did."

"That's something you should have thought of before taking the fall for your 'friend.'"

"Well, there's not much point in dwelling on it, is there?" I asked. "I didn't call you to get reminded of my past failures, Dad."

"Then what did you call for? But try to make it quick; I have a meeting in fifteen minutes and I would like to get there early."

But I knew there was no point in continuing. My dad's mood was already turned against me. If I asked for help, I'd only receive more abuse. "Why don't you just go now?" I snapped. "Take the extra minutes and get all set up. Do what's really important." And, without waiting for a response, I hung up.

Still seething, I paced around my room. _Calm down,_ I tried to tell myself. _Don't let your emotions overtake you._

But that was easier said than done, especially after listening to what my unsympathetic foster father had to say. I'll admit, sometimes, I wasn't sure why he had taken me in in the first place, since he seemed so reluctant to contribute anything to the process of raising a child.

No, I shouldn't say that. He had been an okay father when I was younger; he had looked out for me, provided for me. He had bought me gifts for Christmas and my birthday, and had, two or three times, taken us on a vacation. He hadn't spent a whole lot of time with me, but I had accepted that—he was a top-notch professor at Yale, which kept him very busy, and often away from the house. He didn't have the time to keep a constant watch over his son.

But after I left for college, he seemed to grow even more distant, as if, now that I was no longer living under his roof, I wasn't his responsibility anymore. He paid for my education (until it was brought to an abrupt halt), but seemed much less invested during the conversations I had with him over the phone and in person, when I went back to visit.

I gritted my teeth. What was his problem?

* * *

My frustration continued throughout the day, and when Ienzo came home that evening to find me tersely preparing dinner, he noticed something was up. "What's the matter?"

I sighed. There wasn't much point in keeping it from Ienzo. "I spoke with my father today."

Ienzo nodded; he knew about the strained relationship I had with Ansem, partly from what I told him and partly from his own deductions. "And it didn't go too well?"

I scowled and shook my head. "I can't get any sort of feeling out of that man. I don't know what his problem is, or why he doesn't seem to care."

"That's too bad," said Ienzo. "Did you speak with him about your recent issues?"

I nodded. "I tried to. But after I began, he started to criticize me, blaming me for my problems. He doesn't seem to think that I've been trying hard enough to get a job."

Ienzo raised an eyebrow. "A rather illogical conclusion. Any idea as to why he might say such a thing?"

My shoulders slumped. "I wish I had one."

"Hm." He studied me for a moment, thinking, then muttered under his breath, "Yes…it would be worth a try…"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"An idea of mine," he responded. But he would say no more.

* * *

That is, until the next day. "Roxas," he said when he came home that evening. His tone suggested that there was something he wanted to talk about.

"Yes?" I asked.

He motioned to the dining room table. "Sit down. I'd like to make a proposal."

I sat, not knowing what this was about. "Now," he said, taking a seat as well, "you've been going through a particularly difficult time lately. You lost your job and you've been unable to find another one. You haven't been sleeping well, due to stress, I assume. And that stress has only been increased by your recent talk with your father."

He looked at me, as if expecting confirmation. I nodded. "I mentioned your troubles to Even a while ago," he went on, "and asked if he had any course of action to recommend, to help you out."

I blinked. "Did you? Thank you."

He gave me a half-grin. "We are roommates, Roxas. We look out for each other, do we not?" He went on. "He suggested that you distance yourself from everything that was causing you stress, and you'd probably feel better. So he offered to give me a plane ticket to Alaska to give to you."

"A plane ticket?" I said. "He was willing to buy me a plane ticket?"

Ienzo shook his head. "Not quite. He won a set of four tickets in a contest a little while ago, but ended up unable to use them. He's given three away already, and decided that you could have the fourth."

I wasn't quite sure how to feel. "Alaska?" I said. "But…I should be working, trying to find a—"

"That's exactly what's gotten you into this mess in the first place," interrupted Ienzo. "You can't keep pushing yourself, Roxas. You can't always place your father's expectations on yourself."

I frowned. "Who said I was doing that?"

"Are you not? He wants you to get a job, and so you push yourself to do it. My theory is that you are so concerned with pleasing him that you push yourself to the edge, and nearly over it."

I folded my arms. "I have my doubts. Why would I want to please him? We aren't that close."

"Is that how you want it to be?" I was silent. "I didn't think so. You want your father to respect you, so you're doing everything you can to find employment. But, with your situation, it has led nowhere, and has only succeeded in bringing a great deal of stress upon you. You need a break, Roxas." He reached into his bag and pulled out a piece of paper that I realized was the plane ticket. "Just take a week off. Fly out this Monday and return Saturday evening. I think it will do a good deal for you."

I stared at the ticket, thinking. Should I take him up on his offer? Perhaps…perhaps I did need a break… "But I will lose time looking for a job," I said.

"I'll cover you. Even and I will both do a bit of asking around to see if anyone knows of an open job. Besides, at this point, what can you do that you haven't done already?"

He did have a point. And it might do me good to get away from everything for a while. I could be far away, from New York, Sora, and Ansem. Just take a week to relax and collect my thoughts…

Hold on. I needed to look at this from an unbiased perspective. If I let my personal feelings get in the way, I could make a decision that turned out to be detrimental in the long run.

But, as if reading my mind, Ienzo said, "Don't try to think about it too much, Roxas. I'm studying to be a doctor. I know what's good for people." He held out the ticket. "And it is my professional opinion that you need a vacation."

For another moment, I sat undecided. Then, I exhaled. "All right," I said, and took the ticket.

Ienzo smiled satisfactorily. "There you go. Get your stuff together; you leave in four days, and you won't be back for six."

I nodded, looking at the ticket. And I might have been imagining it, but I seemed to feel calmer. Maybe this really was what I needed. "Thank you, Ienzo," I said.

"You're welcome. Hope it does you well."

So did I.

* * *

SORA

Things were clearing up. We had successfully concluded Braig Carter's case—he and Demyx had both accepted out story explaining his erratic behavior—and Demyx had paid us pretty well for our troubles, which allowed me to pay my rent, and get back on track with that. My arm wound from my fight with Xehanort was healing, too.

The day after we had successfully trapped Xehanort, I called up Terra to report our success. "Great work, Sora," he said after I told him. "I knew you could do it."

I smiled. "Thanks. How do you want me to get your stuff back to you?"

"Well, make sure those gold rods are washed first—I don't know where you stuck them and I don't really want to."

"Can do."

"Secondly, you may have to wait a while. I don't want to risk transporting the jar while Xehanort is still alive. It's unlikely, but it may find some way out. Best to keep it under your supervision until it's fully disintegrated."

"How long will that take?"

"A few weeks, at least."

"How will I know if it's fully gone?"

"Tap the jar from time to time. If you hear something rattling inside, give it some more time. When you don't hear anything anymore, the demon will either be gone or too weak to make an escape attempt. Then you can return it to me. Just make sure to package it very carefully."

"I will. Thanks again for all your help, Terra."

"You're welcome, Sora. I'm proud to be an instructor to someone like you." He paused. "And I know that your parents would be very proud of you, too."

The mood turned somber. Terra had known my parents, having been particularly good friends with my father, Ventus, and their loss had hit him almost as hard as it had hit me. "Thank you," I said. "That means a lot."

"It's the truth. You overcame their loss very well. Not that you don't mourn them, but you didn't let it fill your life with absolute despair."

"I have you to thank for that, Terra. You and Aqua."

"We helped, yes, but we couldn't have kept you spirited if you hadn't wanted to be. You're a very strong person, Sora. Don't ever forget that."

"Thanks."

After a pause in the conversation, he said, "Well, I'll leave you to your work. Again, good job."

"Okay. And again, thank you."

"Anytime, Sora. Talk to you later."

"Bye."

* * *

The subject of my family, however, weighed on my mind for a good portion of the remainder of the day. Fortunately, I didn't have much to concentrate on at work, and so it wasn't a destructive distraction. But I just felt…sad. Every now and then, the loss hit me from time to time, even twelve years after it had happened. Not only had I lost my loving parents, but my sister, Naminé, as well. She had been carried off by the harpies that killed my parents. I had not seen her since, and, since harpies were known to carry children back to their nests to eat, I didn't expect to ever see her again. But she had only been eight. She had had so much life ahead of her, and she had been such a sweet person, too. Why did it have to be her life that was tragically cut short?

These thoughts occupied my mind even after I returned to my apartment. Kairi noticed soon afterwards and said, "Something wrong, Sora?"

I shrugged. "Just thinking about my family."

"Oh." Her expression grew solemn, as well; I had recounted the story of what had happened a while ago, back when Kairi was still a vampire. "Do you need a minute?"

I shook my head. "I'm okay, just a little…down."

She put an arm around me. "Yeah, I can understand that."

She could, actually; Kairi's parents were dead, too.

I let my glance fall to Kairi's neck, where a silver necklace hung. This was a special necklace: my mother had loved silver but had been allergic to it, so my father had had a silver necklace made that has a glass cover, so that my mother could wear something that looked silver but didn't irritate her skin. In the past, I had used the necklace to restrain Kairi—as a vampire, silver limited her powers, but the glass prevented her from feeling actual pain. Eventually, I had come to see the necklace as a symbol of our bond—my father had loved my mother, and had shown it with the necklace. And I loved Kairi, and so I had given the necklace to her.

She followed my gaze. "Does this bring back painful memories?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No. It brings back good ones." I smiled. "My mother was always cheerful when she wore it. I remembered that seeing that necklace was always a good sign. And I was happy." I looked into Kairi's eyes. "And, of course, I remember what it means to us." I kissed her. "I love seeing you in that necklace."

She kissed me back, and I felt her desire. "What else do you like to see me in?" She grinned impishly. "Or not in, for that matter."

The evening's mood was lightened a good deal after that.

* * *

The next day, Friday, and the day after that, I spent with Donald and Goofy working on a new case. Some upper-class woman (wearing a blatantly lavish outfit) wanted us to inspect this dog-sitting business where she was considering leaving her "little Fifi" from time to time, when she was "simply too busy to attend to her doggy needs." So, we spent Friday and Saturday checking out what was essentially a luxury resort for pets—so upscale and pampered that Donald later mentioned he had felt like barking a couple of times to see if they would take _him_ in. Feeling like the woman would want as full a report as possible, we looked into everything we could and took a lot of notes before reporting back to her on Saturday afternoon. Turns out, though, she just wanted to know if they used a certain brand of dog food—"My lovely Fifi can't stand anything that's not made by Brown and Boris's." I was irritated with her for not telling us this in the first place, and saving us a lot of time—but the check that she wrote us did mitigate my feelings a little. "I don't think I'll ever understand people like that," I said after she left.

Goofy shrugged. "I don't think I will, either. But, sometimes ya gotta work with them."

Donald's expression I couldn't quite make out; it was either envy or annoyance. But I didn't linger over it; it was time to go home to Kairi. "You and Kairi got any plans for tomorrow?" asked Goofy—Sunday was the only day of the week when our investigative business wasn't open.

I shrugged. "We'll see what comes up. Depends on the weather, our moods, you know. You guys got any plans?"

Donald shook his head. "Daisy's visiting family, so I'm probably just gonna relax." Daisy was Donald's girlfriend, who had been dating him for a while now—longer than I had been in a relationship with Kairi. They usually got along, from what I heard, but there were times when they didn't agree on things, and that drove a wedge between them. But, Donald seemed happy, at least.

"I'm gonna try my hand at cooking again," said Goofy.

"Oh?" I said. None of us were very good at preparing food, though Goofy was the best among us, and was trying to get better. For his birthday, his roommates Chip and Dale had gotten him a cookbook, and he occasionally took time to try to master some of the recipes contained in it. "Hope that goes well."

"So do I." Goofy picked up his things. "Well, bye, guys!"

We said our goodbyes and went off. The evening was nice enough that it was a pleasure to walk back to my apartment, and when I arrived, I was in good spirits. "Hey, Kairi!" I called.

"Welcome back, Sora," came her reply. She came up to greet me, and, afterwards, asked, "So, did you finish your case?"

"Yeah," I said. "Turns out the woman just wanted us to find out what brand of dog food they used."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "She couldn't have found out herself?"

I shrugged. "Maybe she's not used to doing things herself. Seemed like the type. But, hey, I'm not complaining. Well, not too much, at least."

"Brings in the money?"

"Precisely."

We continued to chat for a few minutes, and then Kairi announced dinner was ready. I was glad that she could cook; my meals had gotten noticeably better ever since she was in charge of dinner. However, we were only a few minutes in when there was a knock on the door. "Who could that be?" I wondered, and got up.

"Whatever it is, it'd better be important enough to interrupt dinner," said Kairi, who liked sit-down meals.

I went to the door and opened it. There stood a tall, well-built man with rust-colored hair and a stern face. As soon as I saw him, I felt a twinge of familiarity…but I wasn't sure who this man was or where I had seen him. "Yes?"

"Sora Parker?" said the man.

"Yes."

"I'm Aeleus Rocklin. We met about four months ago, when you were investigating a missing persons case."

"Oh, yes." I remembered; I had talked with him briefly at his construction site, about what had happened in a bar one night. "How can I help you?"

"Do you know anyone named Naminé?"

I blinked, taken aback. "Naminé?" I said.

"Yes. Is that name familiar to you?"

"Y-yeah. She's—she was my sister."

Aeleus frowned. "'Was?' Tell me, did she disappear?"

I nodded, perplexed as to where this was going. "Yeah, twelve years ago. Why?"

"Was she small, with blonde hair?"

"Yeah…but why are you asking?"

He stared at me for a moment. Then, he said, "Because I may have found her."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Sorry for the cliffhanger. I'll see what I can do about getting the next chapter up as soon as possible. In the meantime, leave a review to tell me how you liked this one!**


	5. Alive

**All right. Really sorry for the delay; the end of the semester meant a lot of work, and I sort of lost touch with my story. But I'm done now, and I promise there will be much more frequent updates.**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

I couldn't believe it. This man was claiming to have found my sister, who had been missing for twelve years and long presumed dead? "W-what?"

He gestured to my living room. "Do you want to sit down? I can tell you what happened."

Still feeling like the situation was too surreal, I nodded, and led him into my apartment. Upon reaching my couch, I sank down onto it. "What…?" I began.

"Sora?"

I turned to see Kairi walking into the room. "What's going on?"

Aeleus was looking at her curiously. "Do I know you?" he said.

She looked at him, taken aback. "Uh…I don't think so."

"Mr. Rocklin." I leaned forward. "What were you saying about my sister?"

Kairi turned to me. "Your sister?"

Aeleus looked at me, as if asking whether or not she should stay. "She's staying here," I said, in response to his unspoken question. "Whatever I hear, she does, too."

He nodded. "Very well." Turning to Kairi, who was just joining me on the couch, he said, "Has he told you about his sister?"

"Naminé? Yeah, I've heard about her." She looked between us. "What's going on?"

"I was just telling Mr. Parker here that I may have found her."

Kairi's eyebrows shot up. "Found her? But…I thought she was dead."

"She may not be…though I am cautious about giving you false hope."

"What did you see?" I asked, unable to take the suspense any more.

He began his story. "I was up in Alaska for a vacation, visiting family. Then, just on Thursday, I ran into someone in the woods."

"In the woods?" I said. "Where, exactly? Who was it?"

"I will explain," he said. "It was a young woman, probably around twenty or so, with short blonde hair."

That _did_ sound like Naminé…but, of course, a lot of women fit that description. "And?"

"She was dressed in a dress that seemed to be of Native American make. I didn't know who she was and thought she might be lost, so I approached her, and sent her running. She seemed afraid of me."

Afraid? But…why would Naminé be afraid of Aeleus?

He went on. "Eventually, I caught up to her, and tried to reassure her I wasn't going to hurt her. Then, somehow, I got her to speak." He frowned. "She seemed to have getting trouble getting the words out, as if she was remembering how to say them. But I did manage to pick them up."

"What were they?"

"Sora Park."

I blinked. "Just Sora Park?"

"She might have said more, but we were interrupted."

"By whom?"

"A man. He looked like a Native American, and seemed to speak to her harshly. They must have known each other, because she acted submissive towards him. He got her away from me, and they both took off."

I felt my fists clench. Was someone abusing my little sister? "What then?"

"They were gone quickly, and I couldn't follow them. Besides, I decided it wasn't my place to get involved." He frowned. "I'm sorry I didn't. I didn't know that this was your missing sister."

_Missing sister…_ Could it really be her? "She said…Sora Park?"

He nodded. "It took me a while, but I eventually remembered who you were. I left Alaska yesterday, and arrived back in New York just a few hours ago, thinking you might have an idea as to who she was."

_Naminé…_ I blinked. "Wait. How did you know her name?"

"The man called out to her. He used that name."

Then it had to be her. How many other Naminés were there, with short blonde hair and a timid demeanor? Somehow…somehow, she must have traveled up to Alaska after being kidnapped by the harpies, and…gotten caught up with these Native Americans. Well, whoever they were, they wouldn't have her for much longer.

"One more thing."

I looked up. "What?"

Aeleus's frown deepened. "The man had…an odd appearance."

"Odd? Odd how?"

"I only caught a glimpse, but it seemed as though he was covered with wolf fur from the waist down. And he must have had some sort of footwear in the shape of wolf feet, because he left wolf-like paw prints." He gave a slight shrug. "I don't know much about it, but I thought it would be worth mentioning."

This was too much information to take in. Naminé was alive, in Alaska, and in the company of…a wolf man? Could she be in the clutches of another supernatural creature?

For a moment, I sat paralyzed, unsure of what to do, or how to feel. Then, it came through to me: Naminé was alive. The sweet, gentle girl who had been snatched away from me all that time ago…she was alive. _Alive._ Tears came to my eyes, and were soon flowing freely. I barely heard Aeleus say, "I'll leave you a minute," and Kairi thanking him before I dissolved.

I wept with happiness for a little while, and I felt Kairi's arms around me and heard her cry a bit, too. Finally, I raised my head to face her. "She's alive…"

Kairi smiled through her own tears. "And we're going to find her."

* * *

When we had sufficiently recovered, I went outside, profusely thanked Aeleus for his information, and asked if we could contact him for more information. He gave us a phone number and, seeing that he was done with us for now, left.

I grabbed my phone; this information was too important not to share immediately with my friends. The only question was who to call first. Fortunately, I was able to make the decision fairly easily: Riku. He was the only one of my close friends who had known Naminé, and the fact that she was alive would be most important to him. Besides, he was still sore from me not telling him about the events with Kairi, and this would be a great opportunity to prove that I trusted him with important information.

He answered after the second ring. "Sora."

"Riku, I've got some really big news."

"Oh? What is it?"

"It's Naminé. She's alive."

For several moments, he didn't speak. Then, "What? How can you be sure?"

I told him how Aeleus had come to me with the news. "And you're sure he's telling the truth?" asked Riku. "It doesn't sound like you know him very well."

"We've met once," I responded. "He struck me as a very down-to-earth person. I find it hard to imagine him lying."

"But he just happens to come across this woman who may be your sister?"

"It is Naminé, Riku. I know it is."

There was a pause. Then, "Sora, I don't want you to get your hopes too high."

"Too late. I know it's her, Riku. I trust my instincts."

"But your instincts may be biased in this case."

"Doesn't matter. I'm still going to find her."

Riku sighed. "Mind if I come over? Let's discuss this face-to-face."

"Please do. I'll be calling Donald, Goofy, and Lea, too. We can all talk about this together."

"All right. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Great. See you then."

After hanging up, I called Donald, and then Goofy, telling them I had heard some huge news and that I wanted them to come over and discuss it. Donald tried to get me to divulge what it was, but I refrained from doing so in the interests of time—it would take time to explain it, and making him impatient to hear what it was would make him come quicker. Lastly, I called Lea, my good friend in the police force, who knew about exactly what I did as of about three months ago. "Hey, Sora," he said when he answered his phone. "What's up?"

"I've just heard some big news, Lea, and I'd like to discuss it," I said. "Are you free right now to come over?"

"Sure, I'm not too busy at the moment. What's the news?"

"I'll tell you when you get here. Riku, Donald, and Goofy are coming, too."

"Must be big, then."

"It is."

"Well, I'll get over as soon as I can."

"Great. See you in a bit."

"Right."

* * *

While we waited, Kairi cleared away our dinner; neither of us had much of an appetite anymore. After a few minutes, Riku arrived, closely followed by Donald, and then Goofy. Donald wanted to hear what the news was right away, but I wanted to wait for Lea. He grumbled, but ended up waiting in sullen silence. Finally, Lea got to my apartment, and I let him in. "Okay, everyone's here," I said, addressing our congregation in my living room.

"Yeah, we are," said Donald. "So, out with it. What's this news?"

I looked at Donald, Goofy, and Lea. "You guys all know the story of my parents and sister, right?"

Donald and Goofy nodded, but Lea said, "I think…but remind me again?"

"My parents somehow offended a group of harpies, so they attacked my family," I said. "My parents were killed, and my sister Naminé was carried off. I've thought she was dead, eaten by them."

Lea made a face. "That's unpleasant."

"So, what about it?" asked Donald.

I took a breath. "I just got word that Naminé is—almost certainly—alive."

Donald's eyes widened, as did Goofy's. "Alive?" they said simultaneously.

Lea frowned. "Alive? Are you sure?"

I nodded. "I just heard from an old acquaintance that he ran into her up in Alaska."

"Wait, back up," said Lea. "What old acquaintance? And Alaska? Give us the full story, here."

So I told them about Aeleus's message. When I had finished, Riku spoke up. "I wouldn't put too much stock into this," he said. "I don't know who this Aeleus character is. How can I trust anything he says?"

"You wanna talk to him?" I said. "I've got his phone number."

He nodded. "That would be helpful, yes."

So I gave him Aeleus's number, and he gave him a call. After talking with Aeleus for a few minutes, Riku decided to call him over, telling him that he would only need him for a few minutes. "He's coming over here," he said as he hung up. "So we'll be able to hear the information from the source."

Lea raised his hand. "I have a question."

"What?" I asked.

"This guy, Aeleus, said that the Native American with Naminé—assuming it was her—had wolf skin covering his legs, and left wolf paw prints. I'm not the expert on these guys, but does that fit the description of some sort of supernatural creature?"

I thought. "Possibly. Hang on."

I got out my computer and opened by copy of "Supernatural Beings of the Natural World." "There are all sorts of varieties of wolf people," I said. "But, here we've got one that has a human torso and wolf legs, living in Alaska. That oughta narrow down the search a bit."

Fortunately, the Guide had several forms of organizing its entries, one of which was by location. Looking in the category of Alaskan/Northern Candian, I scanned for wolf-like creatures—and the very first entry that I stumbled upon fit Aeleus's description. "This could be it," I said. "An adlet."

"A what?" said Lea.

I read over the entry. "A half-human, half-wolf creature. Originated in Greenland and Eastern Canada, but has moved to Alaska and Western Canada. Human torso, wolf legs. They're a rather aggressive bunch, apparently." I looked up. "This matches what Aeleus said. Naminé could have been captured by adlets."

Riku held out a hand. "Can I see?"

I passed the computer over to him, and he read through the entry, frowning. "Odd," he finally said.

"What?"

"It says here that adlets are often cannibalistic—or rather, they eat humans. Why would they have adopted Naminé into their tribe? Why not just…just eat her?"

Eat her? Was Naminé in danger of being eaten…again? "I don't know," I said. "And I don't care. Whatever they have in mind, I will see to it that Naminé is rescued from them."

"Unless…" began Riku.

"Unless what?"

He paused. "What if Naminé has been accepted into their tribe? What if that's her life now? Can we just take her out of it?"

I stared at him incredulously. "She's my sister, Riku! She's living with cannibalistic half-wolves with a tendency towards violence!"

"Remember, you don't know that."

"Like hell I don't! That's my sister out there, and I'm going to find her, whether you like it or not!"

I glared at him, angry, until I felt Kairi's hand on my shoulder and calmed down a bit. "Sora," she said gently, "it's all right. We're all going to help you find her."

Lea nodded. "Even if it isn't her, we'll want to make sure. If it is her, we can assess the situation and decide what to do from there. Either way, we—or some of us—should go to Alaska and check this out."

"Is it going to be that simple?" asked Riku. "We have no idea where to look."

"Well, didn't that Aeleus guy say that he found her in the woods?" said Goofy. "Maybe he can tell us where, exactly, and we can start from there."

I nodded. "And we'll keep looking until we find her."

Riku frowned. "That's taking a bit of a risk, isn't it? We don't know where she'll be. We could end up wandering for days and not find anything."

"What else are we supposed to do?" I asked. "We have to find her somehow. Can you think of a better way?"

He didn't respond, but did seem to be thinking.

Donald then spoke up. "So," he said, "how exactly are we going to plan this out? Who's going? When will they be going?"

"Well, I'm going, of course," I said.

"I'll go, too," said Kairi.

I frowned. "Kairi, I'm not sure about that. We'll be dealing with some pretty nasty creatures here."

"So? If you can handle it, why can't I?"

"I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Oh, like I want to see that happen to you."

I felt a little sheepish. "That's not what I meant."

"What am I supposed to do, sit here and worry about you while you're gone?"

"No, but…if you came, I'd be worrying about you the entire time."

"But at least we'd be together." She frowned. "Or would I be too much of a distraction?"

"No! Well…"

Her frown deepened. "So, what, I'm just a nice distraction?"

"No, of course not! But you'd…"

"But I'd what?"

I was silent, unsure of what to say. But then, Riku spoke up. "I think you should stay here," he said, addressing Kairi.

She turned to him. "What? Why?"

"A couple of reasons. For one, Sora's right; concern for your safety would be a distraction for him, and he'll need his focus for this. For another, you, out of all of us, are the least experienced when it comes to fighting, which we may end up doing."

"I've fought before! I helped kill Sephiroth!"

"But you were a vampire then, and you caught him entirely by surprise. Since you've been human, at least to the extent of my knowledge, you have not been in combat with anyone, human or not. You could fight as a vampire, but you were faster, and more impervious to injury. As a human, we have no indication as to how you would fare against a creature like an adlet."

Kairi frowned. "So you're suggesting I stay here, with no idea as to how Sora's doing, or if he's even alive?"

"I'm saying you trust in me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"I will be accompanying Sora. I will keep an eye on him, to make sure he doesn't get hurt, or do anything stupid."

"Hey, are you suggesting I do stupid things regularly?" I said.

"Indeed I am." Riku looked at me with a hint of amusement. "Come on, Sora. You've always been the more rash one."

"Yeah, when we were kids."

"And you think you've gotten rid of that entirely? You need someone looking after you, Sora." He nodded at Kairi. "Both for your sake and hers. Besides, I have my own reasons for wanting to come. Don't forget; I knew Naminé, and I'm concerned about her well-being, too. I may not have fought that many supernatural creatures, but I've gotten into some rough situations with humans, and I think I can deal with whatever we come across."

I thought for a second, then broke into a smile and nodded. "I'll be glad to have you along, Riku."

* * *

We spent the next several minutes deciding who else would come on our journey. Lea didn't think the chief of police would let him go on a trip of undetermined length, though Riku doubted it would take more than a few days. Donald and Goofy were willing to come, too, but, as Riku pointed out, they might be needed to solve the cases that he and I would be unable to take care of during our trip. Besides, they had a friend scheduled to visit in the next couple of days, and had to be around to see him, and help him with his job situation. So, it looked like it would be just me and Riku. "Like old times," I said. "Remember how we used to go on little adventures as kids?"

He nodded. "Those will be hard to forget. Especially after the time you dragged me to that stream and we both fell in."

I grinned. "Which one?"

Aeleus arrived soon afterwards, and I introduced him to my friends. "What can I do for you?" he said. He seemed a little cross, and I wondered if he resented being called back to my apartment right after leaving it.

Riku addressed him. "I'd like to hear for myself exactly what you saw, regarding the woman you believe was Sora's sister."

Aeleus nodded and related the story again, identical to what he had told me. As he did so, Riku asked him questions regarding specific details, such as why he was in Alaska in the first place, what he had been doing when he saw Naminé, where exactly he had seen her, and even what he had been wearing that day. Aeleus seemed affronted by Riku's insinuations that he might be lying, but kept calm and answered the questions. Finally, Riku said that he was satisfied, and Aeleus, after asking if there was anything else we needed, left. "Well?" I asked Riku once he was gone.

He looked thoughtful. "I don't think he's lying. And I don't think he could have imagined any of that story, either. I'm satisfied that he did, in fact, see a woman who may be Naminé."

"Then you're convinced," I said.

"I'm hesitant in saying that it's definitely her. But I do think it's worth a look."

I nodded firmly. "Damn right it is. And we'll find that it's her."

He nodded slowly. "Perhaps we will."

* * *

With our resolve all set, we began to plan. Both Riku and I would need plane tickets to Alaska, and once we were there…well, we weren't sure. "Where do we even begin?" he asked. "We don't know where exactly Rocklin saw her. And even if we did, who knows how far from her actual location it is?"

"Way to be pessimistic, Riku," I said. "Sometimes, you can't plan everything out. Hell, even if you do, plans can go wrong."

"But it's much more prudent to have a plan in mind before springing to action," he countered.

I couldn't argue with that. "Fine, but what plans can we even make?"

"First, let's figure out the exact location of where Rocklin saw her," said Riku. "He did mention a location…can I see your computer?"

I nodded, and he pulled up Google Maps and used it to locate the spot Aeleus had mentioned. "Okay, somewhere around here," he said, tracing a circle on the online map. "But there's a whole plethora of woods right next to that. Naminé could be anywhere in there."

"Then we'd better get ready for a long backpacking trip," I said.

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Sora, we can't search the entire forest. It would take weeks, if not months."

"But we can look for signs of adlets," I said. "We may be able to locate them if we know what we're looking for."

He shook his head. "Even that could take too long. Besides, do we know what we're looking for? Aside from paw prints, what signs of them being in the area did you have in mind?"

I shrugged. "Fur, droppings, whatever. I'll know it when I see it."

"Will you? What distinguishes their marks from, say, those of regular wolves?"

I fell silent, frowning. There had to be _something_ I could use to identify an adlet…

We brainstormed for a while, until Donald's numerous yawns indicated that it was time to go to bed. "We'll do some more thinking and share ideas tomorrow," said Riku, standing up. "Sound good?"

We all agreed, and everyone except me and Kairi took his leave.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**So, there's the continuation of the story. Did you like it?**

**It might be a little while before I'm able to get another chapter up, but the wait will definitely be much shorter than this past one.**


	6. Preparations

**I apologize.**

**I'd wanted to get this uploaded sooner, but my inspiration left me, and I didn't really go anywhere with this story for a while. But, enough's enough. I won't keep you waiting any longer, and I will do my best to keep going at a reasonable pace.**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

SORA

As I continued to think for ways that I could locate Naminé and the adlets, I noticed that Kairi seemed distracted, almost bothered, by something. It was only when we went to bed and I noticed that she was pointedly facing away from me that I decided to speak up. "Kairi?" I said.

"Hm?"

"Are you doing all right?"

"I'm fine," she said, in a tone that was not very convincing.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Kairi…I'm sorry if you're upset about not coming. It's just…I hope you can understand just how important you are to me, and how much I want to keep you safe. And I promise you, I'll be fine." I grinned. "Especially with Riku looking after me."

A moment passed. Then, she put her hand on my hand. "It's not…it's not that," she said. "I…I'd just like a bit of time to myself. To think."

I was disappointed, but, then again, there had been times when I had needed to be by myself before. "Okay," I said, drawing my hand back. "But, just remember, if you need me, I'll be right here."

She turned her head, and I saw her smile. "Thank you."

* * *

The next morning, I continued my preparations, i.e. how the hell I was going to go about this. I was alone, as Kairi had gone out for a walk, when my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Hello," said the voice on the other end of the line. It was a female voice, pleasant-sounding enough, but I had no idea who it was. "This is Sora Parker?"

"Yes," I said warily. "Who is this?"

"Someone who wants to help," was her reply. "I've heard that you are seeking a group of, shall we say, part-human individuals?"

I blinked. "What?"

"You heard me."

"What…what are you talking about?" I was getting nervous. Who was this strange caller? And, for that matter… "How did you get my number?"

"I called your office," said the woman. Her voice had a no-nonsense tone to it. "Your associate gave me your personal number. I wanted to get in touch with you as soon as I could. I hope you won't consider this an invasion of privacy."

"Why did you want to speak with me?"

"Because of what I said. I have heard that you require assistance in locating a certain group of creatures, and I can provide you with that assistance."

Questions buzzed through my head, and I tried to sort them out. "How did you hear this?"

There was a pause. "Well…do you believe in spirits, Mr. Parker?"

I paused. How much did this woman know about the supernatural? "Some spirits, yes," I admitted.

"I have experience with spirit communication. They know a lot, and they saw fit to tell me. I believe it is my duty to help you."

Even for me, that sounded a little far-fetched. "So, what, you're a medium?" I said.

"Of sorts," she answered.

I hesitated. Communication with spirits was, unfortunately, an ability often lied about and exploited for money. True mediums were rare, and, in my experience, did not often associate with others, preferring to keep to themselves.

But…was it possible that this woman was telling the truth? Could she, by a stroke of incredibly good luck, be the key to finding Naminé? "How would you help me?" I asked, still feeling wary.

"I have met this tribe of individuals before. I know how to locate them."

Rather vague. "Locate them how?"

Even though I couldn't see her, I felt like she was smiling. "Oh, I have my ways. You'll see when you get here."

I hesitated. A large part of me wanted to just go to Alaska, find this woman, and use her help to locate Naminé. But, a sense of caution had been drummed into me over the years, and besides, I knew Riku would never go for anything that was this lacking in detail. "Why should I believe you?" I asked.

"How else would you track them down?" she responded. "I think that I'm your best chance, am I not?"

Damn, she was right. "That—that doesn't still mean that I can trust you."

"No," she admitted. "But without my help, Sora Parker, it will be a very long time before you are able to track them down. And, by then, it may be too late."

"What?" I said. "Too late? Too late for what?"

She did not answer. "Find a plane ticket, and come meet me in Juneau. I'll be waiting."

"Hold on!" I said, but she hung up.

I cursed. I wasn't sure what to do. This woman had given me next to no information about who she was or how she would help me find the adlets. I still wasn't convinced I could trust her. Although…how could she have known about my predicament if she wasn't telling the truth?

I took up the phone again and dialed Riku's number. I was sure he'd have a few things to say about this. "Sora," he answered. "Got anything?"

"Uh…yeah, maybe."

"What?" I could hear the suspicion in his tone.

I told him about the mysterious caller. For a moment, he was silent. Then, "What the hell?"

"Yeah, really," I said. "I can't figure out what to make of it."

"I wouldn't trust her."

"I'm wary, too, but…what other options do we have? Have you thought of anything?"

"No. What about the others?"

"I haven't checked, but I'm sure that, if they had, they would have let us know."

"Hm, I suppose."

"Think we should get their input on this?"

He paused. "It would be helpful, I suppose. Shall we gather everyone together?"

"Sure. I don't think Donald or Goofy have big plans, and Lea should be able to make time for this."

"And Kairi? How's she holding up?"

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

"She seemed a little upset last night."

"Oh, right." I frowned. "She's been acting a little distant. She said last night that she needed to think about things a bit."

"What things?"

"I dunno, she wouldn't say. She's out on a walk right now."

"Hm. Do you know when she'll be back?"

I checked the clock. "She said she'd be back in time for lunch."

"All right. How about you let me know when she's back, and we'll get everyone together?"

"Okay."

"Give some more thought to this—I'm not all that comfortable with going along with what this woman said."

"Uh-huh…"

I wasn't so sure; her offer was getting more appealing. It could be the key to getting my sister back, before…before it was "too late." What did that mean? Were the adlets going to end up…end up eating Naminé?

I shuddered. The thought was too terrible to dwell on. I was going to get my sister back, alive and well. And if that meant trusting a stranger, then so be it.

The question was whether or not the mysterious woman could really help us or not…

* * *

Kairi returned shortly after noon, and I immediately filled her in on what had happened. "Hold on," she said after I was done. "She just called you and said that she could help? Could spirits really tell her that?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I haven't had much experience with spirits." I paused. "But I gotta know. I gotta find out if she's telling the truth, and can really help me."

She nodded. "I understand."

I picked up the phone to call Riku. "What does Riku think?" asked Kairi. "Did you tell him?"

"Yep. He reacted as you might expect. Careful, and unwilling to jump in."

"Think you can convince him?"

"I'm about to find out."

And about a half-hour later, the whole gang was gathered at my apartment. "Something's screwy," said Donald. "We're trying to find a way to find Naminé and these adlets, and, the next day, this woman just happens to give you a call with the answer to our problems?"

"I know it sounds fishy," I said, "but I gotta try it. I need to find Naminé."

"Sora…" said Riku, "take it easy. We can't just go charging in."

"Sometimes we don't have a choice," I said. "And the woman said that she could help me find Naminé before it was too late."

Riku frowned. "Too late for what?"

"You can't guess?" Even the implication made me shudder.

Lea winced. "Did she say when 'too late' was?"

I shook my head. "She just said to get a plane ticket and meet her in Juneau."

"Today?" said Riku.

"I guess so? Look, it doesn't matter. We need to get to Alaska as soon as possible."

Riku folded his arms. "So, you're convinced that we should trust this woman."

"I think we should see what she has to offer us."

Lea nodded. "I'm with you, Sora. I would go in, but tread carefully. Think of a bunch of possibilities beforehand, and know what you would do for each of them."

I grinned at him. "That's your experienced police officer advice?"

"Damn right it is." He tapped the side of his head. "Make sure you got it memorized."

I turned to the others. "What do you think?"

Goofy nodded slowly. "I think Lea's right. But I hope she's for real."

Riku sighed. "I suppose that makes sense." He eyed me. "But we have to be careful about this."

"That mean you're in?"

He nodded slowly. "It looks like the best option we have."

"Then let's get started," I said, rising. "I'll look up plane tickets and get us one for as soon as possible."

I headed over to my computer, hearing Riku say, "Always jumping right into things…"

* * *

ROXAS

Well, I was all set. I had packed everything I thought I would need for a week-long trip to Alaska, and, I had to admit, I was feeling pretty good about it. The past three days had felt almost as if a weight had been lifted from my chest, and, fortunately, the nightmares had not made a reappearance. I was feeling more and more like Ienzo had been right; a break from everything could be exactly what I needed. Then, once I had calmed down a bit, I could find a way to get back on my feet. I was feeling good about this.

That is, until my dad gave me a call.

It was early Sunday afternoon, the day before I left, and both Ienzo and I had the day off. So he rented a copy of _The Matrix_, one of our favorite movies, and we set aside a couple of hours to lie back and watch it. We had just finished the scene where Neo visits the Oracle when my phone rang. "Sorry," I said, picking it up as Ienzo reached for the pause button.

"No worries," he said. "Who is it?"

I checked the number, then blinked in surprise. "It's my dad." I didn't have a whole lot of correspondence with Ansem, and hadn't expected to hear from him so soon after our last conversation.

I answered the call. "Hi, Dad."

"Good afternoon, Roxas," came his deep voice from the other end of the line. "It has come to my mind that our most recent conversation was not ideally concluded, and was perhaps conducted at more of an inopportune time."

Just like him, to launch right into the purpose of his call with formal and complicated speech. Still, I appreciated him noticing. "Yes, perhaps," I said.

"Therefore, I decided to give you a call, and see if we could better address the issues that you brought up previously. Perhaps we can arrive at a more ideal agreement."

"Oh, uh, thanks." This was some of the closest he had come to looking out for me since I had left for college.

"Now, I seem to recall that your greatest concern was finding suitable employment for yourself. Have you made any progress since we last spoke?"

I hesitated, not sure if I should tell him about my trip to Alaska. I didn't know how he would take it; what if he viewed it as more evidence that I was slacking off? But he did seem to be in a relatively good mood at the moment; it was probably as good a time as any. "Not a whole lot," I said, rising and making my way to my room, where we could talk in private. "But—"

"Well, I have thought of a few suggestions that could help you in your search," he said. "First off, remember to apply yourself. You can't get anywhere if you don't make the effort."

"Yeah, of course," I said. "But I—"

"Second, practice your interviewing skills as often as possible. Rehearse with your friends, ask for ways to improve yourself. Make sure you put forth a commanding and confident presence."

"Okay," I said. "Though I don't—"

"Third, we need to find ways to improve your resume. Employers need to notice you to even consider inviting you in for an interview. I believe that—"

"Dad." I cut him off, irritated with his seeming refusal to listen to me. "I'm taking a little break from the job search."

He was silent for a second. "A break?" he said, evidently taken aback.

"Right. My roommate recommended that I do so, to relieve some of the stress that I've been feeling."

"Oh, did he? I would have thought that the best way to get rid of stress caused by unemployment is to become employed."

I frowned. "Dad, he knows what he's talking about. He's in medical school. He works with doctors."

"Well, what is this break that he recommended?"

"He got me a plane ticket to Alaska. I'm going to spend a week there for a bit of R and R."

"He was willing to buy you a plane ticket?" said Ansem, almost incredulously. "It sounds as though he wants you out of the apartment. Is he up to something?"

"He didn't buy the plane ticket," I said. "A friend of his won plane tickets in a contest, but couldn't use them, so he's given them away."

"Is that what he told you?"

"Dad, there's no reason to disbelieve him. I've lived with him for several months now. I'm confident in trusting him."

"You may be. I'm not sure that I am. Besides, a few months isn't a whole lot of time. There have been instances of serial killers whose best friends, having had known them for years, had no idea who they really were."

I blinked, trying to process this. "Are you comparing my roommate to a serial killer?"

"No. Perhaps that was a bad example. I am merely pointing out that a few months is not a sufficient amount of time to judge someone's character."

I held back a groan. "You don't have to be so suspicious."

"I am being cautious, Roxas. But why are you so eager to go on this break?"

"Because I could use it," I found myself saying. "I need to relax a bit. I'm going to take a break for a week, then, once I've calmed down, I'll find a way to get back on my feet."

"Will it be that easy?" he countered. "You'll be losing a whole week of time that you could be using—"

"But Dad, I've been looking for a job almost nonstop for the past several weeks. What can I do that I haven't already?"

"Keep trying. You'll find something. But if you stop now, you'll be ignoring the very first suggestion that I gave you. You'll lose your momentum, and fall into the habit of neglecting your job search."

I gritted my teeth. "Give me some credit, Dad. I'll get back to looking after I return from Alaska."

"You can't be absolutely sure of that."

"I have faith in myself, Dad," I said, my anger rising…again. "Maybe that's something you should try."

I hung up then, partly because I didn't want to lose my temper any more than I already had and partly because I was just fed up with talking to him. Every time. Every time that we talked, we ended up like this. Maybe it would be better if we just didn't communicate anymore.

I sighed. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. But, I'll confess, this was not the first time that I had thought that.

I stayed in my room for a couple more minutes to cool off, then returned to Ienzo. Noticing my expression, he decided not to bring up the topic of my conversation with my dad, and simply asked if I was ready to keep watching. I said that I was, but I still felt resentment simmering in the back of my mind as we finished the movie. By the time it was over, I had made the decision not to bring my phone to Alaska. It may be limited, but, hopefully, I wouldn't need it. And my dad wouldn't be able to contact me, and throw a wrench into what would, with luck, be a breath of fresh air in these smothering times.

I took a breath. I was ready for this trip.

* * *

SORA

We had a bit of a hassle getting plane tickets. I wanted a flight that left as soon as possible, but Riku pointed out that we would need to pack, which would take a couple of hours. That would get us a ticket in the evening, but this would put us in Juneau in the morning, which, as Riku felt, might make it harder for our mysterious contact to find us. "I mean, we don't know when she's expecting us, or even how she's going to find us," he said.

"I can't see her waiting in the airport, looking out for you, if that's what you're thinking," said Lea. "Besides, how would she know what you look like?"

"Maybe the spirits told her," said Riku, in a tone that suggested that he still didn't completely hold with what she had told me.

"Why wouldn't they have told her when you were coming, too, then?" said Lea. "Anyways, she sounded pretty confident when she said that she'd find you, right, Sora?"

I thought back to our conversation. "She certainly seemed sure that we'd meet up, somehow."

"There we go." Lea turned back to Riku. "She'll have a way of finding you guys, whatever it is."

"Perhaps."

We then got into an argument of whether we wanted to get to Juneau in the early morning, and try to get a bit of sleep before the day started; or get there later, so that we could go about our business right after landing (hopefully). Riku was concerned about things like hotel costs and jetlag, while I just wanted to get there ASAP. Finally, we ended up agreeing on a flight that left New York at 9:17 that evening, which got us to Juneau at 7:31 the following day. Once we had gotten that done, Riku, citing the need to prepare (unsurprisingly), left to go to his own place. Lea, apparently, had police duty to catch up on, so he left soon after, but promised to return before we left to say goodbye. Donald and Goofy stayed for a little while to help me pack, trying to think of everything that I might need. As a result, I ended up packing and unpacking my bags more than once, as disagreements arose on whether or not I needed sunscreen, my laptop, shorts, an umbrella, and an assortment of other items. But, finally, we managed to get together a collection of things that reasonably satisfied everyone. Donald and Goofy left to give me some time with Kairi before I took off.

We ate dinner in silence, both of us in thought, wondering what the next few days would bring. I found myself thinking that, even if I did find Naminé, what would I do with her? Could I bring her back into our society easily? What would she want to do? What had twelve years of living in the wilderness done to her? Would she even recognize me? Well, she had remembered my name, so that had to be a good sign, right?

We finished dinner and cleaned up, still quiet. Then, Kairi spoke. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Anxious," I answered honestly. "You?"

"Same."

I reached out to her, and, in a moment, found her wrapped in my arms. "I'll be fine. I'll have Riku with me. He'll make sure we get home safe."

She grinned. "Good to see my boyfriend's so responsible."

I kissed the top of her head. "I'll come back to you. I promise."

She pressed her head against my chest. "I know you will."

* * *

We passed the rest of the time just together, curled up on the couch, simply enjoying each other's presence. It was a time that I almost wished I could just freeze and continue forever—but I did have a sister to rescue. And so, when the time came for Riku and I to meet up, I regretfully rose and retrieved my bag. "All right," I said, standing by the door, Kairi next to me. "I'll see you in a few days."

She smiled and nodded. "Right." Then, leaning forward, she kissed me, slowly and caringly, then put her hand on my heart. "And don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Hope you liked this chapter. Again, I'll do my best to update more frequently, and I'm sorry for the long wait.**


	7. The Mysterious Woman

**Only a week this time! I'm getting better.**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

ROXAS

I stared out the window as the plane moved down the runway. This was it. I was going. Whatever reservations I had had, there was no turning back now.

Surprisingly enough, I felt quite calm. I would be gone nearly a week, with nothing to worry about—no fruitless job search, no Ansem breathing down my neck. Just so long as the nightmares didn't make a return…

I suppressed a shudder and pushed those thoughts away. This was a vacation. I was supposed to relax. And, with any luck, relaxation would provide the necessary calm in my psyche to dispel the nightmares. Or however it worked.

The plane continued to gather speed, until I felt the top of it lifting from the ground, soon followed by the rest. I couldn't help but be impressed at how such a big and heavy object could not only get off the ground, but remain in the air for several hours. Must be a lot of work for the engineers who design them.

A trace of bitterness crept into my mind. If it weren't for that fiasco at college, _I_ might be doing work like that, helping with the construction of vehicles, or a multitude of other things. But life had just decided to bend me over and—

I gritted my teeth. _Damn it, Roxas, lighten up,_ I thought to myself. _Vacation, remember? This is what Ienzo—your roommate and friend, who knows some things about how the human body works—advised. Just take it easy, and work things out when you get back._

I really hoped my entire trip wouldn't be like this.

* * *

SORA

I really hoped our entire trip wouldn't be like this.

Fate seemed to want to cancel out the chance that the mysterious woman had given me. First, we found our plane was delayed, so Riku and I were stuck in the airport for two extra hours, waiting for the damn thing to get in. Then, when it finally did get in, the airport had some issue with the luggage, which they had to take a long time to sort out, so that it was after midnight by the time we finally got off the ground. "It'll happen, Sora," Riku tried to reassure me. "It's just a few hours."

But a few hours could mean the difference between life and death for Naminé. As far as I was concerned, any delay at all could make me fail to rescue my little sister, and I was barely able to control my irritation.

But, as if that wasn't enough, during our layover in Denver, I got a mild case of food poisoning after eating a ham sandwich offered in one of the airport stores. I nearly missed the airplane because I was in the bathroom, but, after I was done, I started to feel better, and made it onto the plane feeling tired and with a headache, but not much more. Riku even picked up a couple of medicines for me, which helped a bit, as well.

Still, though, I had a bad feeling about all of this. Our trip seemed to be destined to catch on snags. Why now? Why this trip, when the life of someone I hadn't seen in years hung in the balance? Was all of my good luck over the years (i.e. still being alive) taking its payment now?

Riku didn't seem as concerned, but, then again, he doesn't always exactly wear his feelings on his sleeve. Still, I could tell that he was on edge, too. He was right; he was concerned about Naminé, like me (though perhaps not with the same intensity), and was also intent on saving her life. He did, though, manage to get some sleep on the plane, while I remained awake the entire time. I knew it might hamper me later on, but I couldn't manage to fall asleep. In fact, I didn't think I'd be able to relax at all until Naminé was safe.

Finally, we touched down in Juneau, and I had to fight the instinct to leap out of my seat before the plane had stopped. Next to me, Riku had just woken up, and was looking around. "We're here," he said.

"Yeah," I said.

He blinked a few times as the implications of this seemed to really sink in. He sat up, and his face grew more alert. "Let's hope this contact of yours isn't far," he said.

Let's hope, indeed.

* * *

We disembarked from the plane and went to get our luggage. Thankfully, no time-consuming inconvenience awaited us; I guess my bad luck had decided to take a break after trying to stop me in Denver. As we went along with the rest of the voyagers to Alaska, I continuously scanned the area for any sign of a woman who looked like she might be looking for us. Of course, in an airport, you'll find no shortage of people looking for other people—but any one of them could be the one that could help us save my sister.

Riku took note of this, and, when I started towards a woman who was standing around with the air of waiting for someone to arrive, held out a hand to stop me. "Hold on, Sora," he said. "Are you really going to ask everyone here if they're waiting for us?"

"We don't know who she is, Riku," I replied. "How else are we supposed to find her?"

"I thought the plan was for her to find us." He waved a hand at the giant crowd that filled the airport. "If we try looking for her in this, we'll only be wasting our time."

"Well, where are we supposed to look for her, then?"

Riku gave a slight grimace. "I don't know. We came here with very vague ideas of what to do. Right now, we're hoping that she'll somehow find her way to us. And if she doesn't, we're on our own."

I continued to cast my gaze around. She _had_ to be somewhere around here. I needed her to find my sister—a thought that, sometime during our trip, had worked its way firmly into my brain. My instincts were telling me that she was the solution, and my instincts were rarely mistaken.

We wandered aimlessly around the airport for a little while longer, drifting towards the exit, in case our contact was waiting outside. Then, suddenly, we heard a commotion ahead. Several people seemed to be shouting. "What's that?" I asked, tensing up.

"Don't know," said Riku, also readying himself for something.

A moment later, it came into view. A small dog was dashing through the airport, with a handful of security guards pursuing it. The dog was white, with a dark stripe down its nose and gray paws, and had what looked to be a grey goatee—almost like a goat. And it was easily evading its pursuers. Any time a guard tried to come at it from the side, or nearly caught up to it from behind, it nimbly leaped away and kept running. "Just a dog," I said, relaxing. Then, I noticed that it was headed straight for us, and felt myself tense again.

"Don't worry," said Riku, noticing my reaction. "It's probably just—"

But he was cut off when the dog came up to us. It jumped up, barked, circled us twice, then jumped and barked again before it had to make another dash away from the guards. One of them, who looked like he could stand to lose a few pounds, knelt near us, panting. "You fellas know that dog?" he asked.

Riku shook his head. "No. Never seen it."

"Seems to like you," said the guard, looking over at the dog. It had turned back to us and barked again before running towards the exit.

A suspicion crept into my mind. "Hey, Riku," I said in an undertone, "you think we're supposed to follow that dog?"

He blinked. "Seems unlikely." His eyes narrowed in thought. "But…"

The security guard had directed his attention back to the dog, which seemed to not want to get too far away from us. "Come on, we can catch him!" he shouted, and forced himself back into the action.

"I…I think it's trying to lead us somewhere," I said.

Riku looked skeptical for a moment. Then, "Hm, maybe." He gave a slight shrug. "Well, let's give it a shot."

I nodded, and the two of us strode towards the dog, which looked as though evading its pursuers had become more difficult. However, upon seeing us walking in its direction, it gave another bark and dashed off, towards the exit.

I began to feel hope. Could, somehow, this dog be leading us to our mysterious woman? It was the best chance we had.

As the dog continued to run, we found ourselves increasing our pace. By the time we had gotten to the exit, we were nearly running.

At the door, the dog darted in between a couple of pairs of legs and slipped out the door before anyone could stop it. Upon its doing so, the security guards stopped chasing it, and stood, panting, at the entrance. "And don't come back, ya danged mutt!" shouted the one who had spoken to us before.

Slipping around them, Riku and I exited the building, barely able to see the dog. But we managed to keep it in our sights, and weaved through the crowd of people, following it.

"This had better lead us somewhere," muttered Riku next to me.

I silently agreed, but I was coming to believe that it would. Why else would this dog seek us out like this? Every now and again it would look behind it, see us, bark again, and continue on its way. There had to be a reason for that.

Then, it ran up to the side of the road and stopped. We caught up a second later, breathing heavily, and I was able to take note of the surroundings. A taxi was parked right next to the curb, but what most caught my attention was the woman the dog had stopped next to, and now was looking up at.

She was younger than I had expected, probably around my age. Her skin was a pleasant color of brown, and her thick black hair fell down below her shoulders. Deep green eyes were looking over me.

She hadn't said anything, but I could tell—this was the woman.

She knelt down and scratched the dog behind the ears. "Good job, Djali," she said, smiling. The dog looked very pleased with itself.

"That's your dog?" Riku asked.

The woman nodded and straightened up. "Best companion I could ask for."

"Did you send him to find us?"

She smiled. "You catch on quickly." She turned to me. "I assume you're Sora Parker?"

I nodded. "And who are you?"

"Esmeralda," the woman said.

Riku turned to me. "She's the one?"

I nodded. "I recognize her voice."

"And I yours," Esmeralda said. She turned to Riku. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are, though."

He hesitated a moment, then held out his hand. "Riku. I'm a friend of Sora's."

She shook his hand. "And you've come to help him?"

"Yes."

"You understand the situation?"

"I know everything he does."

She nodded. "Good." Gesturing to the taxi, she said, "Come, let us go somewhere more conducive for conversation."

"Wait," I said. "When can you start helping us?"

She answered as she knelt down and led her dog, Djali, into a plastic dog carrier. "We are in no great rush. We can afford to discuss things when we get back to where I'm staying."

"Where are you staying?" asked Riku.

"Just a nearby hotel."

"Hold on," I said, frowning. "What do you mean, we're in no great rush?"

"I mean that we have until Friday night, and we do not need more than two days to find the ones you are looking for."

"Why Friday?"

She opened the taxi door. "I will explain shortly." She got in, carrying her dog with her.

I got in after her, not eager to let her get away so easily. "I want answers," I pressed, seated in the back with her, the dog carrier in between us.

"And you will get them. But, like I said, this is not the best place to talk. My hotel is only about five minutes away. We can talk there."

I wanted to press the matter further, but the part of me that knew that it was pointless held me back. So I sat in grudging silence for the short trip, which seemed like a lot longer than five minutes.

Sitting down, however, brought on the fatigue that had kept at bay until then. I had gone a long time without sleep, and being motionless made my body yearn for the rest it had been denied. I tried to fight it, but couldn't hold back a few huge yawns.

I was curious about Esmeralda, though. Who was she? Was she really a medium? How would she be able to help us? Did it have anything to do with that dog of hers? It did seem to display unusual intelligence for a dog. Was it a dog? Maybe it was some other creature that could transform into a dog.

My thoughts became more muddled as weariness continued to settle in. By the time we got to the hotel, I had gotten comfortable in the seat, and my body was reluctant to leave. But I managed to force it to do so and retrieve my luggage from the trunk.

Esmeralda paid the driver, then led me and Riku into the hotel, down a hallway, and into a room. It was a standard two-bed hotel room, and I had to fight the urge to lie down on one of those beds and fall asleep. "All right," I said when she closed the door. "What's going on?"

She looked at me with a slightly amused expression. "I'll tell you," she said, "but I think there's something else that needs to be addressed first."

I had to stop myself from groaning. "What?"

"You." She glanced at Riku. "And you, too. You're both exhausted after your trip. You need sleep."

I shook my head. "I can sleep later."

"Not if you want to get through this, you can't. You're going to need to be alert, and that means getting a decent amount of sleep." She gestured to the hotel beds. "I have two beds here, one for each of you. Take a few hours to rest."

I started to voice another objection, but Riku cut me off. "You want us to sleep here?"

Esmeralda turned to him. "Is that a problem?"

He folded his arms. "No, if you really do mean us no harm."

She raised an eyebrow. "You don't believe me?"

"I have some doubts."

She held his gaze for a moment, then gave a small shrug. "Well, I suppose I would be, too, in your situation." She put her hand up to her chin. "Hm…any way we could arrange things to make you feel comfortable?"

"I'm pretty good at telling when people are lying to me," said Riku. "Look at me and tell me that you don't intend for either of us to get hurt."

"That's all it'll take?"

"We'll see," he said noncommittally.

"All right." She faced him. "I don't intend for any harm to come to either of you."

For a moment, Riku held her gaze, as if evaluating her. Then, he nodded. "All right. That's good enough, at least for now."

Esmeralda smiled. "Good. Can you two get some sleep now?"

I tried to resist again, but, again, Riku interrupted me. "She's right, Sora," he said. "You look like you could collapse on us at any minute. You didn't get any sleep last night…and how much did you get the night before?"

Not much. "Enough."

He shook his head. "Who knows what we'll be doing, Sora? You'll need to be rested up."

"I've gotten work done on little rest before," I argued.

"Well, then…"

Before I could react, Riku grabbed me by the arm, dragged me over to one of the beds, and threw me down onto it. "There," he said. "Now, stay down for a while."

Immediately, I felt my body relax as it sunk into the soft mattress. "No…" I said, but my eyelids were already feeling heavy. Mustering my strength, I pushed myself up, but Riku only pushed me down again. "Riku, come on…"

But my tired self's needs finally caught up with me, and I couldn't rise again. Within moments, I was out.

* * *

ROXAS

The in-flight entertainment provided was minimal, in my opinion. A small selection of movies (none of which I was interested in) and a few episodes from a couple of TV shows (which were pretty good, but only lasted thirty minutes each) comprised the bulk of what we had to keep ourselves occupied. Fortunately, I had brought a book, _Pride and Prejudice_, to keep me occupied. I didn't anticipate getting much sleep, since the plane wouldn't be flying through the night. Then again, I did have to get up pretty early this morning, which cut back on my rest from last night.

But it would all be okay. I could get some rest up in Alaska. I had no obligations up there. Nothing to do but whatever I wanted. And, from what I had heard, there were a great many things to do in the area, opportunities that arose from the state's abundant wildlife, both flora and fauna.

Nevertheless, despite myself, I found my eyelids getting heavy a few hours into the flight. _Well,_ I thought as a large yawn came on, _I could try getting a bit of sleep, I guess._

And so I put away my book, leaned back in my chair, and closed my eyes.

Unexpectedly, it was easy for me to fall asleep. However, also unexpected was what came next.

I don't remember how my dream started out. But I do remember that it was interrupted. By a vision I had hoped I would never see again.

Him again. The tall, silver-haired man. With the red eyes. Once again, within my dreams, I found myself frozen in terror, unable to do anything as he drew closer and closer. The aura of power coming off of him was unmistakable—almost like he _wasn't_ human. Like there was something else to him, something powerful. Something very dangerous—and unstoppable.

I jolted awake, breathing heavily, which got me a glance from the passenger next to me. I tried to force myself to calm down, but, suddenly, I felt vulnerable, cramped into a small seat with strangers on all sides of me. Quicker than would have seemed natural, I rose and made my way to the bathroom, which was, luckily, unoccupied.

It wasn't an ideal location—I was still enclosed in a small space—but it did provide me with some temporary relief. Which I desperately needed. The dreams were back. After leaving me be for a small while, they had returned.

I gritted my teeth as I looked at myself in the mirror, a hint of pallor in my face. Why was this man still coming back to me? Who had he been?

And when, oh when, would I be free of him?

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

******I probably won't be able to make very frequent updates due to my job, but I'll keep the story going. Hope you all keep reading!**


	8. The Adlets' Plan

**All right, here's Chapter 8. Enjoy!**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

SORA

I awoke some time later, and it took me a short moment to remember where I was and what had happened. I grimaced as the memory of Riku throwing me onto the bed resurfaced. How could he have done this? He knew how important rescuing Naminé was to me.

A small part of my mind wondered if he still bore a grudge against me for keeping him in the dark about the whole Kairi-Sephiroth incident. I had hoped that having him on this trip might help that to blow over, but it was possible that there was still some resentment.

I shook my head. No matter what Riku's feelings were, we still had to save my sister. I jumped up, shaking off my post-nap grogginess, and saw Riku and Esmeralda conversing in the corner. "What's going on?" I asked.

They both turned to me. "Sleep well?" asked Riku.

Esmeralda's dog, Djali, came running over to me, but I was too distracted to pay him much attention. "Why are you so concerned with me?" I demanded.

"Because if we're going to have the best chance of getting to Naminé, you need to be at your peak performance level. And you weren't six hours ago."

I stared at him. Six hours? "You let me sleep for six hours?"

Riku shook his head. "Don't sound so concerned, Sora. Six hours shouldn't make a difference."

"What are you _talking_ about?"

He hesitated. Esmeralda stepped in. "You said you wanted answers, Sora. I'm sorry to have kept them from you for this long. But now I will give them to you."

She sat down in an armchair and gestured for me to do the same. There were three in the corner: the one Esmeralda sat in, one that Riku was standing over, and one left for me. I made my way over (Djali following) and sat. Riku followed suit a second later. "This is where I have contacted the spirits recently," she said. "It was here that I first learned of your sister's situation, and your plan to search for her."

"Apparently," said Riku, "she was drawn here by those forces, and, after her contact with the spirits, she called you up."

Esmeralda nodded. "Your sister has been living with these creatures for over a decade. But now is the time to act. Now, the choice must be made, and her fate will be decided." She paused. "One way or another."

I got a sinking feeling in my gut when she said that. I had a sense what one of those ways might be. "But…she's been living with them for over ten years?" I said. "Why would they want to harm her now?"

She shook her head. "They don't want to harm her."

I frowned in confusion. "They don't?"

"No."

"What do they want, then?"

"I will tell you. But first, I must show you where I got this information, so that you won't be hindered by doubt."

She motioned to Djali, who walked over to a corner of the room and sat. And then, she began to chant. It was in a language I didn't understand, and couldn't even recognize. It might have even been a combination of several different ones.

A few seconds into her chanting, the room grew dim, and the atmosphere changed. The temperature remained relatively constant, but you could sense…something was different.

Something was coming.

Esmeralda reached out her hands, one to me and one to Riku. He reached out for it and indicated that I should do the same. Only slightly hesitantly, I took it.

A wave of sensation swept over me, and I couldn't help but flinch. It was…extremely difficult to describe. Almost like an out-of-body experience.

And I could feel the spirits. They were faint, but there. As soon as they felt me, they began to pour…something into me. It wasn't exactly information, more like…feelings. Vague ideas. Concepts. I couldn't make out anything specific—which I later learned was because I was feeling them through Esmeralda, and not directly—but I did understand some things.

Deep in the forest were the adlets. A large number of them. And Naminé was with them. They had been waiting for…something for all these years. And that something…was going to take place this Friday, just like Esmeralda said.

There was no hint of deceit in these spirits. They…it was almost like they couldn't lie. To do so would have no purpose for them. They were relating the truth, and the truth only.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but, after some while, Esmeralda said something and released our hands. My contact with the spirits was broken, and I sat back in my chair. "Do you see now?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I couldn't understand what they were saying." I leaned forward. "But you did, didn't you?"

She nodded. "I know what the Adlet are planning."

"Then tell me. I've waited long enough."

"Yes, you have." She paused. "Like I mentioned before, these Adlet don't want to harm her."

"But they do want to do something to her."

"Yes." She paused again. "Do you know the origin of the Adlet?"

I frowned and shook my head. "What does this have to do with Naminé?"

"I'll get there in a moment. Legends exist about their creation, how they resulted from the union of a woman and a dog." She gave a wry smile. "Stranger things have happened, but this was not the case. Adlet are simply transformed humans. Through some sort of magic, a human and a dog or wolf are merged into a single creature, with the mind of a human but the instincts of a canine. Adlet are more aggressive than humans as a result."

"What are you getting at?"

"You can't figure it out?" Riku asked. "If these Adlet have kept Naminé around for so long, they must have taken a liking to her. But she's still clearly an outsider."

I blinked. "Wait…"

"Riku's right," said Esmeralda. "The Adlet do not want to cast out Naminé or hurt her. On the contrary, they want to make her a part of their tribe. But…they can't do that with a human."

A cold sensation gripped my stomach. "Then…you're saying that they…" I couldn't finish my sentence.

"Yes," said Esmeralda. "Somehow, they have discovered the spell, and can use it. They have to wait for the full moon to do it, but once it arrives, they will carry out their plan. On Friday night, they will turn your sister into an Adlet."

* * *

Okay, so it wasn't as terrible as I may have thought. But still, I knew the adlets' plan was something I had to stop. To know that my sister was a monster, living under their influence, and that I could never see her again?

A portion of my rational mind threw in its two cents. _Monster?_ it said. _She could be an adlet and still be a good person. Look at Kairi. She was a vampire, and you still fell in love with her._

_That's different,_ I tried to argue.

_Is it?_

I shook my head. _I won't let her be forced into becoming one of them._

Esmeralda began to speak, and I forced myself away from my internal argument and to pay attention to her. "If you wish to stop this," she said, "then I will lead you to them, and help you work something out."

I raised an eyebrow. "Work something out?"

She nodded. "Do you think you can charge into their encampment and get your sister back by force?" She nodded to Riku. "He told me you both brought your weapons, but two handguns will hardly be helpful against a whole tribe of Adlet."

"Then what can we do?"

"Like I said, I will take you there. I happen to know the leader of their tribe. He is reasonable enough, and your best bet is to try to work something out with him." Her eyes darkened. "Though I doubt he will be so willing as to give up a woman he has been planning to adopt into his tribe for several years. You will most likely have to prove yourself somehow."

"Prove myself? How?"

"Combat is what I would guess. Adlet place a high value on proficiency in battle. You may have to fight one or more of them to show that you are worthy to reclaim your sister."

I frowned. "How do you know so much about these adlets? What's your connection to them?"

A hint of a smile came to her face. "Are you getting suspicious of me?"

I hesitated. "Wary."

"Yes, of course. I'm a traveler. I've been to many places around the world and spent time there. I have been in this area twice for extended periods of time, and both times I spent getting to know the tribe of Adlet that we are referring to. I have a reasonable grasp of their language, and am confident that I will be able to translate for you."

I couldn't quite ignore the warning bells in my head. "Seems particularly convenient."

Esmeralda smiled. "Life sometimes gives us exactly what we need, Sora. Perhaps the hand of fate has even had a role in this."

I could tell by Riku's expression that he wasn't convinced. But, even though it seemed too good to be true, I got the feeling that what Esmeralda said might just be the case. Maybe life was returning to being good to me, and was going to give me the chance to save my sister.

Well, only one way to find out. "So, you think you can locate them before Friday?"

She nodded. "They have a usual range nearby, and a few spots in particular that might serve ideal for what they have in mind. It shouldn't take more than two, or three at the most, days to find them."

"It shouldn't or it won't?" I couldn't forget that we were on a tight schedule.

"I don't see why it wouldn't. The spirits have given me a rough idea of their location, and I have tracked them down in only a couple of days before."

I nodded. "So, when can we leave?"

"Tomorrow."

I frowned. "Tomorrow? What's wrong with today?"

"I would like to see you better prepared—that is, more well-rested, and with a better idea of what you'll be up against." Seeing that I was still frowning, she added, "Waiting until tomorrow won't make much of a difference. Either I find them in two or three days or I don't find them at all. Why not take the time to get ourselves ready?"

Riku nodded. "I'm with her on this one, Sora."

_No surprise there._ My eyes narrowed, but I nodded. "Fine. But we leave first thing tomorrow."

Esmeralda nodded. "I think that will be agreeable."

I made to rise, but she held up a finger. "One more thing."

I sat back down. "What?"

She looked at me. "As a traveler, I've come to recognize the value of one's freedom. I strongly believe that one must have the ability to decide for oneself what to do. With some exceptions, of course."

I nodded. "Right. That's why you're helping us."

She raised an eyebrow. "How do you figure that?"

"You don't want Naminé to be forced into becoming an adlet, either."

"But that is exactly what I am getting at." Her gaze became more serious. "Your sister has been living with the Adlet for years. Over that time, she may have grown accustomed to thinking of herself as one of them. Like that's where she belongs."

"But she's—"

"Let me finish. It's entirely possible that your sister will not want you to rescue her. That she will want to become an Adlet. I know that may be harsh, but it's a possibility we have to consider."

She was right; I didn't want to think about that.

"If that is the case," Esmeralda continued, "then I will respect her freedom, and let her go. I cannot tell you what to do, but I can tell you what _I_ will do. And, if Naminé decides to spend her life with the Adlet, then I will not help you take her from them."

* * *

After her brutal (but admittedly honest) admission, we agreed to get ready. However, first, Riku reminded me of something. "I think you're forgetting something, Sora."

I frowned. "What?"

"Calling the others back home, of course. I've already told them that we've landed safely, but I'm sure they'd like to hear from you."

I felt like an idiot. Had I just forgotten all the others back home after we'd landed? "Damn!" I said, getting out my phone. I knew who I was going to call first. Riku did too, apparently, and motioned to Esmeralda that the two of them should leave the room for a moment.

I held the phone up to my ear, and the door of the hotel room had just closed when she picked up. "Sora!"

"Kairi." It was nice to hear her voice, after several hours away from her.

"Good to hear from you. Riku told me you got there safely and met your correspondent."

"Yeah. She does seem like she'll help us out."

"That's good."

I hesitated. "Although…"

"What?"

I sighed and told her what Esmeralda had told us: that the adlets were planning to turn Naminé into one of them, and, even more anxiety-inducing, she might want them to do so. "I'm not sure what to think, Kairi," I said. "I want my sister back. It's been foremost on my mind ever since I learned she was alive. But…but what if she doesn't want to come back? I'm…I'm not sure what I'll do."

Kairi was silent for a moment. Then, she said, "Does Esmeralda know that, when Aeleus saw her the other day, the only thing you said was her name? I can't imagine that she would have done that if she didn't remember you, and wanted to see you again."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Then you'll have a group of people who love you very much that you can come home to and find solace in. If that does happen, Sora, then we'll make it through. We'll have to be happy that your sister has found a life that she enjoys, and we'll continue to enjoy our own lives."

"I suppose…" It was true, though a part of me didn't like to acknowledge it. "Won't be easy, though."

"Some things aren't. We know that, Sora. We just have to get through them."

"All right." I smiled. "Thanks, Kairi."

We kept up a conversation for another couple of minutes before I told her I needed to call the others and, after that, get ready to face the adlets. We bade each other goodbye and I love you, and I hung up, a little depressed that I couldn't talk to Kairi for longer. But I did have business to attend to.

I called my office next, and spoke to Donald and Goofy, who put me on speakerphone so they could both talk to me. After the greetings and how-are-you-doings, I brought them up to speed with the situation, meeting Esmeralda and her telling us what the adlets planned to do to Naminé.

"Gosh, that's terrible," said Goofy. "So you have until Friday to stop it?"

"Yeah," I said, not mentioning the dreaded possibility that weighed on my mind. I didn't want to make them worry about how I was doing even more.

"You'll do it, Sora," said Donald confidently. "You've done stuff like this before, and you've always managed to make it. Besides, Riku's always there to help you."

"And that Esmeralda woman, too," said Goofy.

"You guys will kick the adlets' butts!" Donald asserted.

I couldn't help but smile; their confidence was infectious. "Yeah, you're right!"

"Damn right we're right," said Donald.

In the background, I heard a phone ring. "Busy today?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Goofy. "With both you and Riku out, we're the ones left to do the work. Hang on, I'll answer this."

"Going well?" I asked.

"Well enough," said Donald. "But I should probably get back to it."

"Okay, I'll leave you to it."

"Right. Call us again when you get the chance."

"Gotcha."

After hanging up, I called Lea, who had even less time to speak to me. "Sora! Heard you landed safely."

"Yeah. And we found my mysterious caller."

"So I heard. And, hey, I'd love to hear about what's happened so far, but Leon's kinda breathing down my back with this one assignment."

"Oh, okay."

"Yeah, sorry. But I'm sure you'll do well. Just make sure to come back in one piece."

"Right. See ya."

"Bye."

I hung up and let Riku and Esmeralda back in. "All set?" asked Riku.

I nodded. "Let's get down to business."

* * *

ROXAS

It was evening when my plane touched down, though the sun was still in the sky; Alaska days were mostly sunshine in the summer. I'll admit, I was a little excited, though those feelings were partially eclipsed by my worry that I had not managed to shake my nightmares yet.

I had not slept for the rest of the ride. I had been a little tired, but had resisted the urge to try to fall back asleep. I couldn't bring myself to risk another vision of the red-eyed man. Falling asleep that night would be difficult for that reason. So I had finished my book, browsed the options on my TV screen until they ceased entirely to interest me, and stared out the window to pass the time until I arrived. _Well, now,_ I thought, _time to start my vacation._

I disembarked from the plane and retrieved my luggage without any hassle. Walking towards the exit, I noticed a somewhat overweight security guard standing by the door, watching it closely with narrowed eyes, as if trying to catch someone coming in. Hoping it was nothing too serious, I went past him and stepped outside.

Now, I needed a place to stay. Fortunately, the contest that Even had won had included provision of a hotel room for the week, not too far from the airport. I just had to tell them that I was Roxas White, in Even Isaacson's party.

Of course, I needed to get there first. I was reluctant to take a taxi—my funds were rather limited at the moment, and I might want to spend a few dollars on something interesting while I was here—but I didn't see an alternative. So I hailed one of the nearby cabs and gave him the name of the hotel. "Sure thing," he said, and I got in.

The ride was short. When we arrived, I got out, paid the driver, and brought my bag into the lobby. A gray-haired man was standing behind the desk, and it was enough to make me shudder. A gray-haired man in a lobby brought back _very_ unpleasant memories. Sure, this guy didn't have long hair or red eyes, but even so, I felt uneasy.

Nevertheless, I forced myself to approach the desk. "May I help you?" said the man.

I nodded. "My name's Roxas White. I'm with Even Isaacson."

"Isaacson?" The man looked at a computer screen. "Ah, yes. There are two bedrooms reserved for him. 406 has been taken, which leaves you with 408." He reached behind the desk and pulled out a sheet of paper and a keycard. "If you could just sign here, please…"

I signed on the line and the man gave me a card. I thanked him and turned for the stairs. Before I got there, though, something caught my eye, and I turned.

A woman was looking at me, a brown-skinned woman with vivid green eyes. I felt a little on edge. Did she want something with me? But, only a couple seconds after I caught her eye, she turned and walked away.

I shook myself. It was probably nothing. I was just on edge because of my nightmare.

I made it up to my room and went in. It was a decent room, with two beds, a TV, and a couple of tables and chairs (as well as other, more standard hotel furnishings).

I dropped my bag next to one of the beds and sat down. _Well,_ I thought, _here I am._

For a moment, I sat in silence. Then, out of almost nowhere, I rose and aimed a savage kick at the bed in front of me, earning myself a sore foot. God _damn_ that red-eyed stranger! It was because of him that I needed a vacation in the first place, and even now that I was on it, he _still_ wouldn't leave me alone! Damn him to hell!

And damn Sora, too, for whatever role he had in this. For badgering me after the incident. He had some role in my current condition as well.

I let out a groan and dropped back onto the bed, resting my hurt foot. Well, I could be sure of one thing during this trip. I may not be rid of the red-eyed stranger, but I definitely wouldn't see Sora for this week. Back in New York, there was a chance I might run into him, or that he would track me down again. But there was no chance here. Even Sora wouldn't fly thousands of miles just to try to convince me to believe in vampires. And the odds that he would just _happen_ to be in Juneau at the same time as me were infinitesimal. No, I would not see him here. And, with luck, the same would apply for the red-eyed stranger soon.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Epic foreshadowing...**

**I'm making some good progress on this story, so I should get in another chapter fairly soon. Let me know what you think, if there's something you particularly like or want to see.**


	9. The Search Begins

**Okay, it took me a little longer than I thought. Sorry about that; bunch of stuff to do. But here's Chapter Nine!**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

SORA

I was the first to get up in the morning, hardly able to wait any more to go looking for Naminé. Riku and Esmeralda were still sleeping—Riku in the other bed, and Esmeralda on the floor. She had actually insisted on the arrangement, saying that we needed the sleep more than she did, and that she was used to sleeping on harder surfaces anyway. Neither Riku nor I felt entirely comfortable with our host sleeping on the floor, but she would not let us object.

And, now that I looked at her, sleeping on the floor in the early morning, she did look comfortable. I guess she really was fine with not sleeping in a bed.

I looked away from her, not wanting to stare at her form for too long; she was quite beautiful. I mean, not that I would ever be drawn away from Kairi, but…you know how things…well, I mean, I…know what, forget it.

I checked the clock on the nightstand next to the beds. It was a quarter to six, early enough for me to debate whether or not I should wake the other two. We had gone to bed fairly early last night, but the other two might want more sleep…then again, what if the adlets changed their plans with Naminé? Or what if they didn't need an actual full moon to perform the transformation spell? We couldn't afford to lose any time.

I swung myself out of bed, telling myself that, even if I let them sleep for a while, I could walk around for a bit and get my blood moving, maybe even take a shower. But as I headed towards the door, I saw Riku stir, and heard him say, "Sora?"

I turned to him. "You're awake."

"Mm, yeah." He sat up. "Haven't gotten quite used to the time difference. I've been awake for maybe ten minutes."

"And, what, you were trying to get back to sleep?"

He shrugged. "I doubted I would, but I didn't quite have the energy to get up." He gave a brief yawn. "But now that you are, I'll follow suit."

I looked back at Esmeralda, who was still lying on the floor. "What about her?"

"We can let her sleep for a little longer, at least." He nodded towards the bathroom door. "You going to shower?"

* * *

I took a brisk shower, but even so, when I got out, I found Esmeralda also awake, Djali by her side. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"Good," I said. "I'm ready."

"Good," she said. "Let's get ourselves all ready, and then we can be on our way."

And, after we had dressed, eaten a quick breakfast, and gathered our things, we were.

Riku and I both carried our guns, while Esmeralda carried a dirk, which she said she would only use if things became unexpectedly dangerous for us. She also wore a necklace with an emerald set into it, which apparently helped her to contact the spirits no matter where she was. She also had a first-aid pack, filled with both standard items and things that she had learned how to use during the course of her many travels. We each carried some food and a few items of clothing, as our search was expected to take a couple of days.

So we were traveling fairly light, but still had enough to comfortably last us the required time.

And now, _finally,_ we were able to go. To find Naminé. To see the sister that I had thought dead for a dozen years. To save her.

_If needed,_ that little part of my mind reminded me.

I shook my head. Whether or not Naminé would want to stay with the adlets (please let it be not), I had to see her again. To make sure that she was safe, and do everything I could to ensure that she stayed that way.

"Time for another hunt," I said to Riku. He nodded.

Carrying her dog, Esmeralda lead us to the woods, renting another cab and having the driver drop us off at a certain spot. He seemed puzzled, given that there was no obvious place for us to go, but didn't complain when Esmeralda paid him, and was willing to drive off and leave us there.

"Now then," she said, putting Djali on the ground, "let's track them down."

* * *

ROXAS

My sleep that night was not interrupted by more nightmarish visions, but it wasn't the soundest I've ever slept. I found myself waking up a few times during the night, though I did manage to fall back asleep fairly easily afterward.

I can't say I didn't get a lot of rest, though. Due mostly to jetlag and time difference, I fell asleep before nine p.m. and woke up just after nine a.m., and it felt good. Sure, you wouldn't want to sleep like that every day, but after all the stress and sleeplessness I had been experiencing, sleeping for twelve hours (maybe a little less) made my body feel more relaxed than it had been in a long time.

It made me feel confident, confident that this vacation _would_ give me just what I needed to recover from the past few months. So I was at ease when I got up, dressed, and meandered down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I was able to eat leisurely, too, not worrying about anything I had scheduled that would require me to hurry up. I wasn't too far from the coast, and thought I would go down there and see what there was to see. And there was no scheduled time to do so; I would go when I pleased.

I didn't have too much else to do, though, so it wasn't too long before I was headed down to see what I could see. There was a small cliff not very far from the hotel, where I found a handful of other people standing to take in the sights. Nearly all had a camera, or, in the case of a couple of them, binoculars. I joined them, looking out at the coast and the water beyond. It was quite magnificent.

A few people made noises and pointed, and I saw a bald eagle flying nearby. I watched it soar for a few seconds, then angle towards the water, looking for fish, no doubt. A moment later, it was successful; it dived down, making a splash in the water, and emerged with a fish in its talons. People around me oohed and took pictures. I did the same, having brought along a camera myself. I had thought that I would want one, and I was right.

After a few more wildlife sightings, including a couple of orcas, another bald eagle made an appearance. Following the actions of the other one, it circled the area around the water for a moment, then made a dive. For an instant, it looked as though it would have the same success as the previous one.

Then, something happened that no one expected.

One of the orcas burst out of the water right next to the eagle, jaws open. Stunned, I watched as the unfortunate bird was subjected to the mercy of the whale's sharp teeth, which brought it down into the water. Once there, it didn't have a chance; this was the orca's territory now, and it was much more powerful than the eagle. Soon, a small pool of blood was visible on the water's surface. The people around me seemed fascinated, their cameras clicking rapidly and their voices murmuring how they had never seen something like that before.

Less inclined to watch, I turned away. The event had left an impression on me, though. It seemed unusual, for a killer whale to attack an eagle like that. Surely there was easier, meatier prey for it to get? Was there a reduction in the local fish population?

But then, I saw something that drove those thoughts entirely out of my mind.

Another one of the orcas had swum up to the rocky shore, and looked to be trying to pull itself up onto land. That was odd enough—why would a whale be trying to beach itself?—but it was nothing compared to what I saw next.

Before my eyes, the whale changed. Its black and white skin turned brown, and hair began to sprout up all over its body, which became leaner. Its flippers grew thinner, and appeared to move up its body. Its dorsal fin sunk into its back. Its head shifted shape drastically, keeping a long nose but taking on a forehead and neck, with ears extending from the sides. Its tail shrunk severely, with another pair of limbs sprouting from below it, seemingly out of nowhere.

The whole process only took a few seconds, but when it was over, it would be nearly impossible to know that the orca that had come up to the shore had transformed into the creature that now stood on the rocks.

A large brown wolf was perched on the shore, brown shaggy fur dripping wet. It shook itself, then trotted into the wooded area that was laid out below the cliff.

I was still trying to process this. That was impossible, what I had just seen. An orca transforming into a wolf? There was no way that could happen…

But I had seen that, hadn't I? I wasn't going crazy, was I? I blinked several times, making sure I wasn't still asleep. Still dazed, I turned to the other people near me, to ask if they had seen it, but it was clear that they hadn't; they were still focused on the orca that had brought down the eagle.

I wasn't sure what to do. For a second, I considered ignoring it, but cast that idea aside quickly; I couldn't ignore it, and if I did nothing, I would begin to question my sanity. In fact, I was doing that already; what other explanation was there for seeing what I had just seen?

No, there had to be some other reason. Something that would allow me to see a killer whale transform into a wolf in a few seconds. I couldn't be going crazy…could I?

I hurried down to the woods, anxious to get to the bottom of this, and verify that I hadn't lost it after all of the recent stress.

* * *

I got to the area just a couple of minutes later, keeping my eyes open for any sign of the orca-wolf. I'll admit, I wasn't sure what I was planning to do if and when I found it—I just needed to find out, somehow, that there was some sort of reasonable explanation for what I had seen.

I didn't find anything immediately while walking through, and found myself at the shore where the transformation had taken place. I looked around, and saw a set of large paw prints leading in a different direction. I followed them, keeping my eyes open; that wolf had looked large enough to hurt me if it wanted to.

As I walked along, I saw more evidence of the creature's process—more paw prints, broken foliage, a bit of hair here and there. So it was around somewhere. I kept going, unconsciously increasing my pace as I did so. I was determined that I was not crazy; I had been doing so well this morning, hadn't I? I had to find this creature. I had to.

It had enough of a head start, though, so that I was going along for quite a while. However, several minutes into my excursion, a thought struck me, and I stopped. Where was I? The woods beneath the cliff had extended into a much broader forest, and I could walk for hours without finding human civilization. Panic began to grip me, but then I tried to reassure myself. _Calm down, Roxas,_ I thought. _You haven't been walking for too long. Just retrace your steps. It'll be easy enough; that wolf made a fairly clear trail. Just follow it, and you'll be back at the shore._

That was true, wasn't it? Except…could I just leave now? If I turned back, I wouldn't find out what I had seen. Maybe I could do some research? But what if that turned up nothing? I could keep going, but not only was there no guarantee of finding this creature, but there was a larger chance of really getting lost. I was stuck.

Just like always.

Frustrated, I let out a yell and kicked a tree. "Why does everything have to be so goddamn hard?" I yelled. "I just can't get away from it, can I? I'm just cursed, no matter what I do, is that it? So, why bother? I'll just do whatever I want, huh? But you'll find a way to mess even that up, won't you? Well, I'm sick of it! You hear me? Sick of it!"

I stood, panting from the effort. It made me feel better to yell it, but it didn't exactly help my situation.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling, and turned to see a large brown shape slipping through the trees. Instinctively, I took off after it. The wolf was close now, slipping away, but not fast enough to get out of my sight. I ran, just thinking, _What is this creature? I have to know._

But then, I saw the figure in front of me shift. It was no longer running away from me. Now, it was facing me. I stopped, several yards away from it, though I still had a pretty good view. It didn't seem to be much more than a regular wolf, albeit a larger-than-normal one. It was looking at me, and I wondered if I should back away, move forward, or just stay where I was.

Then I saw what looked like hunger in its eyes, and stopped wondering.

I began running a split second before it did, but, as I could hear from the noises behind me, it was faster. Only a couple seconds into our reversed-positions chase, I realized that running would be futile, and the only way to get out of this situation would be if I could somehow fight it off. It would be difficult, but not (I hoped) impossible.

I turned, only to find the wolf much closer to me than I had expected. I tried to put my hands up to defend myself, but the wolf leaped and crashed into me, sending me flying. A second later, I felt my head hit something hard, and my vision went black.

* * *

SORA

The first few hours of searching had a kind of excitement to them. If you've ever began an adventure (or something like one), you should have an idea of what I'm talking about: you really feel like you're about to do something important. And I most certainly did. I was going to find my sister, and if she had any reservations about becoming an adlet, I was going to take her back home with me. Esmeralda and Djali led us through the woods, the latter occasionally using his sense of smell to track the adlets down, and Riku and I readily followed.

However, after we had been on the trail for a few hours, gotten caught in a few branches, and turned around a couple times, other emotions began to set in. Worry that we might not get there in time. Irritation that we would have to go through several more hours of trekking through the woods. Doubt that Esmeralda may not be as big of a help as she had claimed. By the time that we took a break for lunch, my initial positive feelings were largely eclipsed by the others.

Riku took notice and pointed it out. "Something troubling you, Sora?"

I shrugged. "Just worried."

"We'll get there, don't worry," said Esmeralda. "We have time, and I accounted for delays like we've had."

Still, I didn't feel satisfied. I wanted to find Naminé as soon as possible, not spend another two days wandering through the wilderness, only possibly on the trail of the creatures that took her.

We ate our lunch in silence, Riku glancing at me from time to time. I could sense his concern, but I didn't know what he could do to make me feel more at ease. So, we finished eating in an awkward atmosphere. Trying to dispel it, Esmeralda stood up. "So, shall we continue?" she asked. "The sooner—"

But she stopped, and looked down at Djali. The dog had perked his head up, and seemed to be aware of something nearby. "He senses something," she said.

Esmeralda had told us all she knew about her dog the previous day, which, all things considered, wasn't much. As far as she knew, Djali was nothing more than a dog, albeit one with an usually high level of intelligence and sense. He seemed to understand what she said, or at least what she wanted, and could sometimes sense things that humans could not. Now, apparently, was one of those times.

Djali spent a few more seconds pacing, sniffing the air and growling slightly. Then, he trotted off, in a direction almost perpendicular to the one we had been taking. "What is it?" I asked. "Does it have anything to do with Naminé?"

"I couldn't say," said Esmeralda. "But I don't think he would take us along if it wasn't important."

_It had better be,_ I thought, as I followed her and her dog on a different path through the woods.

* * *

Djali led us for a little while, but all I could think was that this was a detour, costing us time on our way to find Naminé. Still…something about the dog's demeanor made me believe that this might be worth checking out.

Then, suddenly, he stopped, standing still with his hair standing up, growling softly but fiercely. Esmeralda brought herself to a complete halt. "Danger ahead," she said in a low voice. "Be careful."

I took out my gun, and saw Riku do the same. Carefully, we advanced in the direction that Djali was facing. Esmeralda followed, and, with some reluctance, so did Djali. Several minutes later, he stopped entirely, his eyes wide. "There's something right up ahead," said Esmeralda. Cautiously, Riku and I edged around the row of trees that stood in front of us.

The area in front of us was largely clear of trees, with several rocks around the area. And it was not uninhabited. A number of large wolves were visible, some wandering around, others sitting still.

Riku turned to me, his expression both anxious and questioning. I could tell what he was thinking. What were those creatures, and why had Djali led us here?

Whatever the case, we needed to find out quickly. Those wolves were likely to smell us, or hear us, or see us, if we lingered for too long. Or taste us. But apparently, there was something in or near their encampment that Djali had wanted us to see.

A moment later, we saw it.

The wolves had a gathering of what looked like prey in one spot. They were mostly large animals—a few moose and an elk, which were all incapacitated, with broken legs or broken backs. None were dead, though—yet. But they were not my concern. What was was the only being there that wasn't a large deer-like mammal.

It was a man. A young man with spiky blond hair. And, even from this distance, I was pretty sure I could see who it was. From a few hundred feet away, the unconscious face of Roxas White was pointed in my direction.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Thoughts? Comments? Hopes/Expectations? Anyone know what the creature Roxas saw was? (Hint: it's not a generic shape-shifter)**

**Next chapter to come fairly soon!**


	10. Rescuing Roxas

**Sorry for the wait, I got caught up in stuff and my focus was shifted away from this story. Fortunately, I managed to shift it back, and finish this chapter.**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

SORA

Riku saw him, as well, and motioned for us to fall back. We did so, and met up with Esmeralda and Djali at what we felt (and hoped) was a safe distance. "What did you see?" she asked.

"Big wolves," I said. "I'm not quite sure what they are, though. But that's not important. They have a friend of mine captive."

Esmeralda raised an eyebrow. "What?"

I explained what I had seen, and what my connection with Roxas was. "And you're certain it's him?" she said.

I nodded. "I haven't seen him in a little while, but I know his face."

"But what would he be doing here? You told me he lives back in New York."

"I have no idea. But it's him."

She turned to Djali. "That's what you sensed? That this man was a captive of these wolves?"

He gave a nod.

Riku folded his arms. "I can already tell what you're thinking."

"Don't try and stop—"

"I wasn't going to. I have no intention of leaving him to die, either." He frowned. "But we have to do it very carefully. First off, do we know what those things actually are? I get the feeling they aren't really wolves."

"So do I," I said. "But there's no way of knowing what they are."

"Actually…" said Esmeralda, and we both turned to look at her. "There is another species of wolf-related creatures in the area, at least that I know of. But if these are what I think they are, then we need to take extreme caution."

"Why? What are they?" I asked.

Esmeralda shook her head. "I can't say for certain. It's best not to make a guess, in case I'm wrong. Either way, Riku's right—we do need to be careful." She looked past us, into the trees. "You said he was grouped with some moose and elk?"

I nodded. "It looked like all of their prey was incapacitated. The moose and elk were wounded. Roxas looked like he was knocked out."

"Are you sure he was alive?"

I paused. "He looked like he was."

She rose. "Let me get a look." Quickly but cautiously, she made her way to the trees, looked through them, then came back. "I would agree with you. We have to find some way to rescue him. Fortunately for us, it looks like the wolves don't keep a very close eye on their prey, relying on their injuries to keep them in place."

"Why would they keep their prey alive, though?" wondered Riku.

"Probably because they want it fresh," said Esmeralda. "Which means that we're very lucky." Her mouth thinned. "Still, it will be difficult to get him out of there undetected."

"That doesn't matter," I said. "We've done difficult things before. We can do this one."

But then, Djali's fur shot up, and he grimaced, facing the clearing. "They're coming," said Esmeralda. "They must have caught our scent."

"Looks like things are about to get more difficult," said Riku grimly.

Esmeralda moved quickly. Leaping over to where Riku and I were, she pushed us down, behind a fallen log. "Get dirt on yourselves, it'll help mask your scent," she said quickly. "Djali and I will lead them off. Get Roxas and get out of here. We'll find you."

"But—" I began.

"No time, do it," she said firmly.

I wasn't so confident. Those wolves were big enough to kill her, and she was our only hope of finding Naminé, at least before our Friday deadline. "It's too dangerous," I protested.

"I will be fine," she said. "I know how to handle myself." She fixed me with a direct stare. "I promise I will lead you to your sister, Sora."

And with that, she was gone, Djali running after her.

Riku, who had already dirtied his face, threw some dirt on me. "What the—?" I sputtered.

"Do it, Sora," he said in an undertone. "If we're going to save Roxas, we'll need to get past them undetected. This is our best option."

I made a face, but complied, rubbing dirt on my face, arms, and whatever skin I could. As I did, I heard a rustling in the trees, and Riku pulled me down. We heard Djali's bark, and then the rustling moved away. "All right, you ready?" Riku asked once they were gone.

I nodded, and we got up, carefully, and made our way back over to the clearing, coming at it so that we would enter as close as possible to the prey. Once we got there, we peeked out. There were still about a dozen wolves, though most seem to have been distracted by Esmeralda and Djali running off, as they were looking in that direction. "We good?" I asked softly.

Riku put a finger to his lips and continued to look around. Some of the wolves had gotten tired of looking out for the intruders and were returning to wandering around the area. His face grew grim, and I could tell what he was thinking. _We need another distraction…_

Suddenly, a scream rang out through the trees. "Esmer—" I began.

Riku grabbed me, hand over my mouth, and dragged me behind a tree. "Quiet!" he hissed. "We can't let them find us."

"But Esmeralda's in trouble," I said, my voice muffled by his hand.

He shook his head. "I doubt it. I don't think she'd scream like that if she was actually in trouble. I think she's trying to distract them further. Now, let's use this opportunity!"

I blinked. Riku could be right…Esmeralda didn't exactly seem like the type to scream in terror if her life was threatened. More like the type to fight back.

I looked to my gut feelings, as I often did. They agreed with Riku—Esmeralda was probably using her scream to draw the attention of the wolves. After a moment, I nodded, and Riku released me. Carefully, he looked around the tree again, and, when he nodded to me, I did the same.

The wolves, had, indeed, been drawn to the sound of Esmeralda's scream. Many looked in that direction with their heads perked up, an excited air about them. _Probably sensing their prey is almost finished,_ I thought. _Well, I think they'll be in for a surprise._

But we had something else to attend to. Riku gestured, and, as quickly and quietly as we could, the two of us moved over to the group of prey. Some of the moose looked over at us and uttered low bellows, getting the attention of one of the wolves. Just as it turned, we dived behind one of the quieter moose, just a few feet from Roxas. After not hearing the sound of heavy paws coming our way, and after the moose had quieted down, we looked out and saw that the wolf was no longer concentrated in our direction. Getting up, we closed the remaining distance to Roxas. Gesturing, Riku indicated that I should carry him by the arms, while he would get his legs. I nodded, and we both lifted the unconscious form of my former doorman. He let out a small groan, but didn't draw the attention of any of the wolves.

That is, until we were almost back to the cover of the trees. Roxas let out another groan, this one louder than the one before. I felt myself freeze as I saw one of the wolves turn its head and look directly at us.

This was the part in our adventure where we would have been dead if it wasn't for Riku's quick actions. In one movement, he had dropped Roxas's legs, drawn his pistol, and fired. Just as he did, I noticed he had a silencer attached to the barrel. _When did he get one of those?_ I thought.

It did the job—the wolf gave a small whimper and dropped to the ground. One of the other wolves turned to it, but by then, Riku had grabbed Roxas, thrown him over his shoulder, and ran into the trees. I quickly followed, then glanced back to make sure that the wolf hadn't seen us. It didn't appear to have done so; it was sniffing the dead wolf's body, growling.

Something told me I didn't want to wait for it to do anything else. I retreated from the area, then ran after Riku, who was still carrying Roxas.

We didn't flee carelessly, but we did run fast. Well, as fast as we could while one of us was carrying a body. I would have helped Riku carry it, but, you know, we couldn't exactly stop for that while running for our lives. So, I just went on, uh, for our protection, right…

Anyways, we stopped after a while. Panting, Riku laid Roxas's body down and turned back. "Any sign of pursuit?"

I looked behind us and shook my head. "I haven't heard anything…"

"Did you see them? I saw you looking back after we left."

I nodded. "One of them was checking out the one you shot. I don't think it saw us."

He relaxed. "That's good. Hopefully, we've gone far enough to throw them off." He looked out. "Now, let's just hope Esmeralda finds us."

I nodded. "I hope she got away from them."

"I think she did. There's a lot to that woman."

"Yeah, you're right." I turned to him. "By the way, good shot."

"Thanks."

"You saved us back there."

"I just did what came to me."

"Where'd you get the silencer?"

"I picked it up a while back. I thought it might come in handy one day."

Hm. I hadn't heard of it. Of course, it wasn't a big deal, but it might be something he would bring up in conversation…

Another groan brought my attention back to our situation, and I looked back at Roxas. I knelt down and checked his vitals. "He seems all right," I said. "Just knocked out."

Riku nodded. "Still, he could use some treatment. The sooner she gets back, the better."

* * *

ROXAS

I did not feel good. My head throbbed, and most of my body ached. Though I was, apparently, conscious.

I groaned. What had happened? My eyelids felt heavy, but I managed to open them, to get some idea of where I was.

I was looking up at the sky and treetops. Judging by the ground that I felt underneath my body, I deduced I was lying down on the forest floor. But where…

Suddenly, I heard movement nearby, and someone approaching. I tried to sit up, but a hand on my forehead forced me down. "Lie still," said a voice. "That's a nasty bump on your head, and it needs time to heal."

A face appeared in my vision. It was a woman's face, with brown skin and green eyes. I frowned. Who was this? She seemed familiar, somehow… "What happened?" I asked.

"You must've hit your head," said the woman. "We found you in the forest."

I frowned. "'We'?"

She looked over. "I have a few companions with me."

My frown deepened. "Who are you?"

She turned back to me. "My name is Esmeralda. I'm here to help you."

That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for. What was this woman? A doctor? Something else? Still, I couldn't exactly complain; she did say she was going to help me, and she didn't seem like she was lying.

I shut my eyes for a moment. Of course, with my luck, she might be. Or maybe she was a hallucination. Well, at least she wasn't as crazy an illusion as the orca…

My eyes widened, and I tried to sit up again. Once again, the woman's hand restrained me. "Not so quickly," she said. "And don't sit up just yet."

"Where's the wolf?" I asked.

The woman blinked. "Wolf?"

Oh, hell. Don't tell me there was no wolf… "A…a wolf. It…it knocked me out, I think."

"Ah, yes." She nodded. "The wolf is gone. You don't need to worry about it."

Relief seeped into me. So, there was a wolf, after all, and it had gone away…hopefully.

But what had happened to it? Why had it left? From what I remembered, it had been chasing me, and…well, that was it, actually. Why would it have left? Did this woman, Esmeralda—and her companions, whoever they were—scare it off? From what I remembered, it was big enough so that humans didn't pose much of a threat to it. Did she have enough companions for the wolf to decide it was outmatched and leave? Or…did they somehow manage to fight it off?

I felt a damp cloth being pressed to the side of my forehead, and the throbbing subsided somewhat. "You should recover soon," said Esmeralda.

I lay there for a few minutes, feeling the cloth's effects on my wound. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed to do a better-than-average job of healing it. But I shook off the thought. That was probably just the way I was interpreting it.

I shifted on the ground. _Couldn't they have put me somewhere more comfortable?_ I found myself thinking. Someplace like my hotel bed would be really nice about now.

I frowned. Hotel bed…hotel…something in my memory responded to me thinking about my hotel. Something having to do with…

Esmeralda's face came into view again, and I remembered. She was the one I had seen yesterday in the hotel, the one who had looked at me strangely. I narrowed my eyes. Was it her? Yes…yes, it was.

I shut my eyes firmly. That couldn't be right. How would the same woman that I saw in my hotel be in the woods right now, helping me recover from a wolf attack? No…I had to be seeing things.

Great. So, had I lost it after all?

I shook my head. I needed professional treatment. As well as this Esmeralda woman meant, these were not the appropriate facilities for someone who had just incurred significant head trauma. (I'd picked up a couple of things from Ienzo.) I made to sit up, then remembered how she had pushed me down both times I had tried. "Can I get up?" I asked.

"One moment," said Esmeralda. She put a hand on my forehead, closed her eyes, and muttered something.

Well, that didn't bode well. Seemed more like the actions of a superstitious person. I suddenly felt a lot less confident in her abilities, and had to resist the urge to get up and get out of there. But she only took a few seconds before opening her eyes and nodding. "You may sit up, but slowly."

I did so, and surveyed my surroundings. We were in a small clearing in the woods, though it didn't look very similar to the area where I had been knocked out. "Where…" I began, and then I noticed that we were not the only two people here. A white dog was staring at me from a nearby tree, and another man was seated several feet away, looking at me with an appraising eye. He looked pretty tall, and, as much as I can say, he was handsome (though his face was pretty dirty), with long silver hair.

I frowned. "I know you…"

He nodded. "Riku Taiko. I visited Sora Parker often when you were his doorman."

I forced myself not to flinch at the name, and the memories it brought back. "What are you doing here?"

Riku nodded at Esmeralda. "I was with her when we found you."

"Doing what?"

"Going for a walk in the woods."

I frowned. "But…you're a detective from New York, aren't you? Why are you in Alaska?"

"I could ask you the same question," he replied. "Last I heard of you, you were still in New York as well. How did you get all the way up here?"

He was dodging my question. "I'm just on a vacation," I said. "And you?"

"I accompanied a friend here for something that required our immediate attention."

"Which was?"

"A personal matter."

I sat back, a little frustrated that he was keeping something from me. But, then again, it wasn't all that important to know exactly what he was doing.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "This friend of yours…who is he?"

Riku raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm curious."

"You think he's someone you know?"

"I hope he isn't."

He blinked. "He is also with us in the forest. He will be back shortly."

As if on cue, I heard footsteps nearby, and instantly turned my head in their direction. "That'll be him now," said Riku.

I felt a sense of dread as the mysterious person approached. It couldn't be him…

But, seconds later, it was indeed Sora Parker who emerged from the trees. "No sign of them," he said, addressing Riku and Esmeralda. Then, his gaze shifted over to me.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then, he said, "Oh, good, you're okay."

I stared at him incredulously. "No…no, I'm not okay." I got up. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He looked taken aback. "I'm looking for someone."

I still couldn't take this in. How was Sora, one of the very people I had hoped to get away from, here, in Alaska? "Oh, yeah? Who?"

"My sister."

I frowned. "You have a sister?"

He nodded. "Yeah, and I've gotta find her."

Well, at least he hadn't come all the way up here just to track me down. But still…what were the chances of us coming up to Alaska at the same time? And at the same place, too? I mean, Alaska was by far the largest state in the United States; how could he have come to the same location I did, and at the same time?

This wasn't helping to reassure me that I hadn't lost my mind. Maybe my subconscious was still too focused on Sora, and this was all a big hallucination. Or a dream; maybe I was still unconscious from the wolf. Hell, maybe there never was a wolf at all.

Riku spoke, cutting into my thoughts. "Have we decided what we're going to do with him?"

I looked up. What did that mean?

"I'm not sure we have much of a choice," said Esmeralda. "If we took him back, we'd lose a lot of time. We'd have to start again, a day later than we originally did, and I can't guarantee we'd find the Adlet by then."

Adlet?

"Can he travel?" asked Sora.

Esmeralda nodded. "We might have to take it a little slow, but it'll be less of a delay than going back."

"Then let's go," he said. "We've already lost a couple of hours."

"Hang on, what?" I said.

The three turned to me. "We're on a search," Riku explained, "that requires us to walk through the woods. We're also on a tight schedule, and have to arrive at our destination by Friday. This place will take us a couple of days to find, and since we can't risk losing the time, we're going to have to take you along with us."

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" I protested.

Riku shrugged. "You can try to get back on your own, but given your condition, the wolf creatures that attacked you, and the fact that we're pretty far into the woods, your odds are better with us."

"Well, why can't one of you take me back?" I didn't like the idea of going with them at all.

"Because the only one of us who can find the way back is her," said Riku, pointing to Esmeralda. "And she's also the only one who can lead us to our ultimate destination."

"Then take time out of your schedule," I said firmly. "I'm not staying in these woods any longer than I have to. I came here for some much-needed relaxation, and I'm not going to let you take that away from me."

Sora stepped forward. "Look, Roxas, it's not about what we want to do, it's what we can do. We need to get to this place by Friday."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because if we don't, my sister will be turned into an inhuman creature."

"Oh," I said. "Oh. So _that's_ what this is about. You're still on your goddamn supernatural creatures craze. You're convinced that there's all sorts of things out there that reason clearly dictates do not exist, but still somehow do. So you've got your friends to accompany you," I waved at Riku and Esmeralda, "on a crazy mission that you believe has to do with some crazy being or other, and now you want to drag _me_ into it. I told you already, Sora, I don't want anything to do with this bullshit, so take me back or I'll find some way to bring legal charges against you."

Sora's face darkened, and, unexpectedly, he took a step forward and swung his fist upward, hitting me in the cheek. As I staggered back, pain burning in my face, he spoke. "Stop pretending like you know everything," he said angrily. "I'm getting tired of your arrogance. You're just going to have to accept that there are things in this world that you don't understand. And you don't understand the situation we're in right now." He took another step towards me. "I have spent the past twelve years believing that my little sister is dead. Then, a couple of days ago, I discover she's alive, but being kept by a group of creatures in Alaska. So I set out with my best friend and a guide in the hope of finding her and having her in my life again. And, just now, I was willing to take time out of our schedule to save you from those wolves. I have saved your life twice now, but I've gotten no gratitude for it, because you're too wrapped up in your own stuck-up logic to believe it. Well, I'm done. You owe me, Roxas, whether you like it or not, and, unless you want to be stuck out here, you'll be coming with us to help me find my sister." He looked at Riku and Esmeralda, his expression still hard. "Come on, guys, let's get going."

And he marched off without a backwards glance, leaving me in something of a daze.

"Oh, Sora, hold on," Esmeralda called out after him. "You're going the wrong way! Here, it's back here."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**So, I've brought Sora and Roxas together. Now, let's see what else will happen...**

**As always, let me know what your thoughts are!**


End file.
